Xerostomia is a medical term for dry mouth. Although it can be a sign of disease, it is not always; other causes for lack of saliva include side effects of drugs or medications, trauma to the salivary glands or their ducts or nerves, or previous radiation therapy.
Xerostomia can cause difficulty in eating. It also leads to a dramatic rise in the number of cavities as the protective effect of saliva is no longer present.
Treatment involves finding any correctable causes and fixing those if possible. In many cases it is not possible to correct the xerostomia itself and treatment focuses on relieving the symptoms and preventing cavities.
