Dry mouth
 

Perhaps this is due in part to Clonazepam, or the various other medications in the last several months I've been subject to (anti depressants come to mind).

In any event, let's talk salivation.

I've been a mouth breather FOREVER. I suffered with terrible sinus troubles as a child, and got into this habit then. It never much caused me a thought, until recently when I quit my excessive smoking habit and my poor mouth was trying to heal from that, and couldn't because at night it would dry out and be raw when I woke up.

Electric heat during the winter... doesn't help matters! Lining up little cups of water on the registers can to a degree.

I've resorted to taping my mouth shut to sleep. Frank before you say anything, Tabasco sauce is not harmed in the making of this mouth! LOL. Tape is the only thing to ensure that I don't wake up with raw and tender tongue and dry cheeks inside.

I do find however that my throat now suffers! It's the dry when I wake up from the nose breathing. Also I find I wake up quite a bit, I would assume in part due to the discomfort factor of the tape, but I also believe that I am not breathing 100% capacity through my nose still.

Now go figure, I would contact my ENT about this (who I love because, he basically found my MS), but long story short there was a fire in their building, so they're out of commission there for a couple weeks.

I know about the breathe right strips... are they worth the investment? Could that alone stop the mouth breathing? Or would I still likely be prone to breathe through the mouth?

Other than drugs, I wonder if anything else contributes to this...although in waking I don't seem to have a problem with saliva. Only when I sleep!

Yes. In a word: living.

Have you considered becoming a member of the "undead"? Mayhaps you would not experience this condition if you did.

(Dimpled One, I'm so sorry..... I really wish that I could take this disease and all other things that we get that go along with it less seriously.)

:D

LOL Gaz hahahahaha.

Honestly though. Are breathe rights worth the money? I figure if I had some type of easily identifiable nose issue going on, they'd have found it at the ENT or via the millions of xrays/CTs/MRIs I had done :(

How about putting a humidifier in your bedroom near where you sleep?

I have problems with dry mouth, which is why I'm trying to not take any other medications other than the Copaxone.

What's not helping is the apparent flare that keeps trying to knock me to the floor the past few weeks.

I've never tried the Breathe Right strips, so I can't answer your question. Sorry about that. But I do like Erin's suggestion about the humidifier. Might help.

Hrm, can dry mouth be attributed to MS as well? :confused:

I didn't think so... but hey, anything's possible huh?

Yeah, humidifier may be something to consider for definite ;)

Yes breathe right strips are great...once you train your mouth to stop breathing. When I am actually breathing through my nose hte strips work great the problem is, I breathe through my mouth too.

Duct tape it is! But I'll try the strips as well ;)

LOL duct tape! Silence may be golden but duct tape is silver!

I can't tell you the number of times I have threatened the man with duct tape because of his snoring!

So far the nights I've slept with it on my mouth, I wake up with less mouth irritation and pain :D

Still trying to heal this mouth, which is like nursing a wounded lamb back to health. It's going well at least!

My friend who lives in Ireland is also trying the same technique of duct tape.

As a general rule, I wake up with the tape still intact. Depending on how I'm sleeping that is. I have taken the tape off my mouth in my sleep before. ;)

Friend did suggest a tape that breathes a bit more (can be bought at the drug store I believe) that holds just as well, so I may have to look into that one! I think it's a cloth based tape v whatever duct tape is, plastic? LOL.

dmplaura

Do you also have dry eyes? There is an autoimmune condition which features a dry mouth and eyes ( Sjogren's Syndrome ) and often appears as a secondary condition.

You might ask on the autoimmune forum how those with Sjogren's Syndrome cope with their dry mouth symptoms.

Merle

Nope, the eyes are not dry. Just the mouth seems to be when I sleep and if I don't drink lots of water through the day.

I'm leaning on dehydration. :cool:

They did retest my ANA, so we'll see if anything funky comes up in that. I know that testing is used in part for Sjogren's

Copax does a number on the gums with dry mouth too. Talked to my dentist about it. He has quite a few MS'ers and noticed a huge difference between those on DMD's and those who aren't.

He recommended a non-alcohol based mouthwash to help with the dry mouth too. Be warned though, tastes like toothpaste. :p

Oh really? This makes EXCELLENT sense, because my dry mouth did begin around the time of Copaxone entering the picture.

I woke up to my tape laying stuck to my bedsheet and not on my mouth this morning LOL!

I chew sugarless gum for my dry mouth at night. If I wake up with dry mouth, I chew gum for a few minutes, that relieves it, and then back to sleep I go.

I have had very dry eyes since starting copaoxone. I think its one of my triggers.

I drool at night, so thats still good in my world. :eek: