Hi David --

Ask your doctors about Evoxac -- it was prescribed to my husband Barry by his dental onc at Hopkins (an expert on salivary function and radiation effects) -- he started taking it after treatment. In some cases they start it during treatment for patients who are showing bad dry mouth early on. My husband's xerostomia was never terrible, due to his radiation plan (tomoTherapy IMRT, very precise, allowed missing much of salivary glands) as well as his taking amifostine (ugh!) all the way through. However the Evoxac did help him get over the worst part of it, he took it 3x a day for some months and is now down to once a day (at night) or 2x if we are in a dry climate (like Australia last August).

He never has to sip water and almost never uses any of the artifical salivas because he gets a more benefit from simply chewing a dental gum, XyliMax, (available from many dentists) which stimulates natural salivary production and has the added benefit of reducing sugars in the mouth and thus the risk of dental caries. I am sure you have been told that dental issues are one of the worse outcomes of dry mouth.

Gail

p.s. Barry does feel less "sharp" now than before treatment, his MO says a number of her patients report that even though the usual chemo drugs (cis- or carboplatin) do not cross the blood/brain barrier and should not be causing "chemo brain." She says the cause is unknown but usually resolves. (Barry hopes so, in meantime is doing "Memory Prescription" book exercises and Sudoku. How many others here have fet a bit "fuzzy" some months or even a year from end of treatment?