I'm starting my 4th week of Rads and cisplatin and everthing I eat taste like salt water. I gargle religiously with salt and baking soda. I would like to try povidone Iodine but dont know whether to dilute it. 10-20 milliters or 7.5 % is the recommended dosage 4 times a day. Is this straight out of the bottle? It is recommended for chem mucositis prevention.

Hi Rick and welcome to OCF. I'm not familiar with povidone iodine. Is it used for mouth sores? Have you spoken with your pharmacy? I find they are a good source of information and you can walk in and talk to them face to face with no co-pay!!

Did your doctor suggest using this? If not, I would check with them before you do anything. You don't want to use something that will interfere with your treatment. How are handing your treatment?

Povidone Iodine is also known as Betadine and is what they scrub your skin with before surgery. Suggestion to check with pharmacist is what I would do.

7.5% seems to be plenty strong enough. I wonder if the taste would hang around like the orange color does?

I keep finding reference to it but with very little detail on dilution as a gargling agent for head and neck cancer. I have found 7.5 to 15 percent to be the recommended dosage. The salt water baking soda makes everything I eat taste like pure sea water. I mixed a new batch yesterday at 15 percent and it is quite tolerable and soothing. I asked my Oncologist about it and he looked at me like a monster with two heads. Told me to drop the salt and just use the baking soda. Since the two need to react to one another there is obviously no point to drop one. Asked the nurse and she told me not to swallow the iodine. I have cancer- I'm not a moron. I'm starting week five today and can still swallow and eat and am keeping the sores to a minimum. Personaaly it seems to be a reasonable alternative to the salt and baking soda with better results.