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PRACTICE: Mark Taubert, Eleanor M R Davies, and Ian Back Dry mouth BMJ 2007; 334: 534 [Full text]

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Dry mouth? -don't forget diabetes.

Ian D Rubenstein   (10 March 2007)

dry mouth and hyperthyroidism

Ann Kelly   (23 March 2007)

Dry mouth? -don't forget diabetes. 10 March 2007
Ian D Rubenstein, GP Eagel House Surgery, Ponders End, Enfield, EN3 4DN Send response to journal: Re: Dry mouth? -don't forget diabetes.	I'm a GP and I was interested to read the article on dry mouth. There is one glaring omission: nowhere can I find mention of diabetes. In my experience this is one of the most useful early symptoms of maturity onset diabetes. If a patient walks into my room and complains of a dry mouth I immediately reach for my blood glucose monitor before I start checking for iron overload! Competing interests: None declared
dry mouth and hyperthyroidism 23 March 2007
Ann Kelly, Reserch and Evaluation Coordinator Northen Health, Fort St. John. British Columbia, Canada Send response to journal: Re: dry mouth and hyperthyroidism	Another cause of dry mouth is hyperthyroidism. I wish my dentist had picked it up sooner after I complained about it and got tested for Sjorgens and was tested negative. Finally my GP diagnosed me with Graves disease 2 or 3 years after my initial dry mouth symptoms when I finally presented with tremors,tachycardia and multiple other symptoms of Graves Disease. It's such a waste of human potential when something that can be so easily diagnosed with a simple and inexpensive blood test gets missed for such a long time. Competing interests: None declared