Laurie,

The extent to which salivary function comes back will depend quite a bit on the specific treatment and the area that was most affected. However, I will say that I've been surprised at how much of mine has come back, but it took a VERY long time.

I had conventional XRT radiation over 17 years ago, before IMRT and before amifostine, so there was nothing available to try to spare my salivary glands during treatment. Also, some salivary glands were removed during my surgery. I ended up with a very dry mouth and had to keep water constantly on hand. After Salagen became available (I was in the clinical trials for it), I started using it regularly because I was part of the group that got noticeable benefit from it -- and I've been taking it daily for around 15 years. When the Biotene products came out, I started using them as well, and found them to be really helpful. However, it literally took years for me to see some significant, steady progress. I no longer have to have a water bottle handy all the time, and the consistency of my saliva has become much more "normal", although it's not all the way back to what it once was.

I guess for me it was a good news, bad news story -- yes, it was possible to see real improvement (even with NOTHING preventive done in the first place), but it took a long time.

Cathy