the.com/xerostomia
Dry mouth so stubborn even your own saliva ghosted you.
means A medical term for abnormal dryness of the mouth, usually caused by reduced saliva production from medication, disease, or dehydration.
from Built from Greek parts: 'xeros' meaning dry (the same root in xerox and xeriscape) and 'stoma' meaning mouth. Doctors stitched the two together in the 19th century to give the dry-mouth sensation a proper clinical name, replacing whatever people had been grumbling about it before.
- literal meaning
- Greek for dry mouth, no poetry intended
- common cause
- side effect of over 500 medications
- not just thirst
- saliva glands actually underperforming, not dehydration
- real risk
- raises cavities since saliva normally fights decay