There is no empirical data in any peer reviewed published study that shows measurable salivary function changes from acupuncture. We have had numerous people here try it. While some felt that there was some minor improvement, it was a highly subjective feeling. There were collateral issues influencing their opinions - like they were still in the first year after the end of treatments, when things in small ways do get measurably better, and then there is the whole " I think there is some improvement" kind of comment, but that is hardly evidence it is opinion.

Everyone (me included) would like relief from acute xerostomia. But the truth is that the glands have literally been destroyed, beyond their ability to regenerate function. This is not a function that any professionals know how to correct today. Our biggest improvements in oral cancer patients have come from things that avoid the damage in the first place, like IMRT radiation that can be mapped around the parotid glands some times completely, or at least partially. There have been experimental surgeries to move the glands out of the field of radiation and then transplant them back into place afterwards. But taking a gland which has been destroyed on a cellular level and getting it to work again, given our current state of understanding (less stem cell interventions being tried in experiments now) makes regeneration of function a physical impossibility.

Acupuncture it seems, is more likely to financially help your acupuncturist than it is to help you regain salivary function. The gland is dead. Lazarus it is not.

Don B -your comment would be consistent in what we normally tell patients. That the natural return of some function tops out at about a year to 18 months after treatment - what you have then is what you will have forever after.