Xerostomia Diagnosis – A Narrative Review

Abstract

Xerostomia can be defined as a feeling of dryness of mouth, which may or may not be accompanied with reduced salivary secretions. Xerostomia may result in localized and systemic disturbances within the body. The overall global prevalence of xerostomia is 22% with wide variation among different countries due to difference in target population. This review presents the recent literature on the diagnostic methodologies that are present in recent times through subjective and objective corridors. The most commonly used subjective methods for the xerostomia diagnosis include: Fox questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Xerostomia Inventory (XI), and Shortened Xerostomia Inventory (SXI). Objective xerostomia diagnostic tools include salivary flow rate assessment. Aside from this, there are numerous radiographical modalities that can be used especially in diagnosing salivary gland disorders or radiation exposure due to oncological treatments which can also provide the added information to diagnose or monitor xerostomia. These radiographic tools include computer tomography (CT), scintigraphy, sialography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasonography. Different combination of tools gives a better xerostomia assessment, selection of which also depends on the age and health condition of the patient. KEYWORDS: flow rate; hyposalivation; diagnosis; oral dryness; salivary gland dysfunction