Objective: Xerostomia (or oral dryness) is most commonly caused by medications that affect saliva secretion, and is often accompanied by symptoms of orofacial pain. Medication-induced xerostomia may or may not be associated with objectively demonstrable hyposalivation. The present study attempted to systematically identify an association between medication-induced xerostomia and orofacial pain.
Method and materials: A systematic search was conducted using the following databases: WoS, PubMed, SCOPUS, and MEDLINE. The search terms used were: xerostomia OR “dry mouth” AND medication AND (“oral pain” OR “orofacial pain” OR “craniofacial pain” OR “burning mouth” OR “glossodynia”) NOT Sjögren’s NOT cancer. Inclusion criteria were medication-induced xerostomia and reported symptoms of orofacial pain. Four researchers performed the selection process and quality assessment and two researchers conducted data extraction.
Results: Seven studies with a total of 1,029 patients were included. These studies were conducted between 2009 and 2022 and consisted of cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, and one randomized crossover trial. The studies consisted of a total of 1,029 participants. All studies included male and female participants whose mean ages ranged from 43 to 100 years.
Conclusions: A positive association was found between medication-induced xerostomia and orofacial pain. No associations were found between salivary flow measurements (hyposalivation) and medication use. Future research should focus on saliva flow measurements, standardized assessment of medication-induced xerostomia, as well as the inclusion of accompanying orofacial pain diagnosis in the medical history to allow for higher level of evidence in establishing reliable predictors of medication-induced oral health damage to facilitate clinical prevention and management.