59 Differences in perceived intra-oral dryness Regional Oral Dryness Inventory for the various dry-mouth patient groups Tables 5 and 6 show the perceived oral dryness in eight different intra-oral regions as determined with RODI for the six patient groups. In these patient groups, all eight intra-oral regions differed significantly (Kruskal Wallis test, p < 0.01). The first function of Tables 5 and 6 is to provide an overview of the regions that each of the six patient groups experienced as the most dry and least dry. While the most dry in controls and SS patients was the posterior palate, in Low Med and High Med patients, it was the anterior tongue. The region that was experienced as least dry also differed between groups. In Low Med, High Med, and SS patients, it was the inside cheeks; in controls, it was the floor of the mouth. In RTX and SS + High Med patients, there were no significant differences among the intra-oral regions. The second function of Tables 5 and 6 is to present the RODI scores for all intra-oral regions for the upper jaw (Table 5) and lower jaw (Table 6). SS and SS + High Med patients had the highest RODI scores for all these regions, while controls and Low Med patients had the lowest. The difference among the patient groups with the highest and lowest RODI scores was significant for all eight intra-oral regions (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.05). This result indicates that SS and SS + High Med patients experienced more severe intra-oral dryness than controls and Low Med patients. High Med patients experienced significantly more severe intra-oral dryness than controls and Low Med patients, as shown by the higher RODI scores for all eight regions. On the other hand, High Med and SS patients differed only significantly with regard to the RODI scores of the posterior palate, indicating that SS patients experienced more severe dryness of the posterior palate than High Med patients (Table 5). The RODI scores highlighted significant differences between High Med and SS + High Med patients for several regions. Higher scores showed that SS + High Med patients experienced more severe dryness in the inside cheeks, posterior tongue, and floor of the mouth than High Med patients did. RTX patients had a significantly higher RODI score than controls and Low Med patients only for the inside cheeks. The RODI scores of RTX and SS + High Med patients differed significantly for the floor of the mouth, RTX patients having lower RODI scores than SS + High Med patients. This means that RTX patients experienced the floor of the mouth as less dry than SS + High Med patients. 3
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