Regarding saliva production.
The parotid glands produce a more watery secretion. ie. no mucous secretion which would be slippery and coat your mouth/teeth. The submandibular glands produce 70% of the saliva, and produce lubrication.

What one experiences after the dust settles and you are healed up is highly dependent on what was destroyed by the radiation and that depends on the irradiation field and how sensitive the individual is to the radiation. In my case, at least one of the parotids was completely spared and the other one likely also survived. This means that I have saliva but it is watery. At this point my submandibular and sublingual glands are not functional to any appreciable extent. The lack of slippery saliva makes swallowing dry stuff more difficult and you teeth also feel rough......
I drink coffee but now I use a lot more cream, at this point I am totally off soft drinks or anything that is carbonated.

Do any of you use the biotene gum or any other chewing gum?

And yes the alternative to these issues would really suck!

M