Hisnibs,
You are probably still cooking from your radiation treatments. It hasn't even been a month yet has it?

Your Salivary glands probably haven't yet started to heal.

So going back to work already is really amazing!

It usually takes a couple months before our body will just start getting back to normal and your eating will likely be quite messed up for a couple more months.

Then you should start to see some real improvement.

You have to give it some time and you are probably doing a lot better than you think and comparatively quite well

Brian:
I believe Anderson did a study regarding acupuncture for salivary glands. I saw Dr. Richard C. Niemtzow, MD, PHd, MPH who wrote the original protocal for acupuncture and was involved in the study. (Sorry, don't have more specific info, but I found the info when I was initially looking at studies back in January.

Dr. Richard C. Niemtzow is a colonel, USAF, MC, FS. He practices in DC at Walter Reed. I was referred to him by my radiologist.

Dr. Niemtzow procedure is to use pins in the ears and the fingers, for 1 hour, but only 2 days. He told me that you don't need a lot of treatments, only 2. He also said that treatment can be done any time after 6 weeks treatment ends.

I saw him exactly 6 weeks after treatment. I did not have the desert mouth as many people do, but food does stick to my teeth when I eat. My mouth is generally wet, just not a consistancy I'd like. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I could not generate any more spit than before I saw him.

With respect to him, he gave me some instruction to help bolster saliva and told me he would treat me again if it didn't work. However, I've never been back. I don't know if it just doesn't work, or if 6 weeks is too early, or I just wasn't a good candidate.

This is for info purposes only, I'm not trying to sway anyone's decision regarding acupuncture.

Sandyst

There is no down side to trying this except financial for most people. I think given that, if someone wants to try it, they should. I just have not in ten years come across someone that has had a reversal of acute dry mouth via this process. There have certainly been a lot of researchers who have looked at it, and of course there is no shortage of people selling the idea to others, for reasons financial. It's a buyer beware and your milage may vary kind of thing. Just go into it with an open mind I suppose if you wish to try it.

There are means to actually measure salivary output, and if you were going to do one of the studies (like the one at MDACC) they will actually measure you before and after to get hard metrics on effectiveness.

In the 3 years that I have been on this site probably close to 10 have said they tried it and unfortunately none have said they saw any improvement.