The Waterpik is my best friend. Since I can no longer use my tongue to get food out of my teeth, I just blast it out with water. It’s a lot easier than flossing, especially if you have a limited mouth opening. I opted to get the model that comes with an electric toothbrush. I prefer an electric toothbrush. I feel like it gets my teeth cleaner and cleans those hard to reach areas better. Taking care of your teeth is so important after radiation!

This is the cordless Waterpik. I loved my at home model so much that I got one to take to work. It’s a little bulky but it’s wonderful for cleaning out your teeth after meals. I didn’t realize how much I used my tongue to clear the food from my teeth until I couldn’t do it anymore.

Aquaphor ointment is very soothing to skin during radiation. It helps to protect and heal burnt, peeling skin. It is greasy and attracts pet hair and debris so I washed it off with antibacterial soap, such as foaming Softsoap, and reapplied a few times per day to prevent infection. I preferred the foaming soap because I didn’t have to rub as hard to get it off of my very sore and sensitive skin.

MuGuard was prescribed to me for Oral Mucocitis treatment. It forms a protective layer in your mouth to reduce soreness. I swished it like mouthwash. It has a numbing property and helped to sooth some of the side effects.

Clōsys mouth rinse was my saving grace during radiation. The unflavored type comes with a bottle of peppermint oil that allows you to add as much or as little as you want. I opted not to use the oil. This product is actually unflavored. It’s alcohol free and felt like water in my mouth but still cleaned my teeth. So even when toothpaste burned I was able to swish this product and brush a wet toothbrush over my teeth. This helped to keep my teeth clean, my breath fresh, and killed bacteria in my mouth. This was pretty important since I had a mouth full of burns and sores that could easily get infected.  I still use this product as mouthwash today. Regular mouthwash, including alcohol free, still burns my mouth.

Biotène Mouthwash is recommended to me by every medical professional the moment I tell them I have dry mouth. Although it is alcohol free, it burns my mouth. I feel like this product was designed for individuals with dry mouth as a side effect of medication and not for dry mouth after radiation treatment. I did not feel like I produced more saliva when using this product. It was painful to use and I don’t prefer it.

Clōsys mild mint toothpaste is more gentle on the tissue in my mouth than regular toothpaste. It burns my mouth a little bit but it’s tolerable. I prefer the mild mint flavor over the clean mint flavor because it burns less, but it is harder to find in stores. I can only find it on Amazon. This toothpaste is a little more gentle than regular toothpaste.

Biotène dry mouth toothpaste is gentle on my mouth. It still burns a little but I am struggling to find an unflavored fluoride toothpaste.

GUM soft picks are great! They are portable and come with a slim carrying case. These picks come in many different sizes and widths based on how tight or wide the spaces are between your teeth. I prefer these to floss and flosser picks. I find that floss products loosen food from between my teeth but these soft picks allow me to extract the food from between my teeth. I keep these in my pockets, purse, and in the car. They are a great floss alternative and massage my gums rather than make them bleed.

I tried the DenTek Easy Brushes but I didn’t like how they felt on my sensitive teeth. They are like toothpicks with toothbrush bristles on a skinny, flexible metal post. I found them harder to use.

The dental oncologist told me to use Colgate PreviDent prescription fluoride paste. My regular dentist made custom trays for my top and bottom teeth. I was instructed to squeeze the fluoride paste into the trays and let them sit on my teeth for 10 minutes every night. It burns my mouth but I try to do it as much as I can to strengthen my teeth and protect them. I also use this product as toothpaste before going to bed.

Hydro Flask vacuum sealed stainless steel water bottle. I have a few of these. I carry one everywhere. Radiation affected my saliva production. The saliva I do produce seems to be less and generates slower than before. I struggle with dry mouth. It’s also more effortful to swallow so I don’t swallow involuntarily resulting in thick mucus like saliva that pools in my mouth. Drinking plenty of water helps in many ways. First of all, I’m always thirsty. It also helps to thin out my thickened saliva and acts as my saliva substitute when I struggle to swallow. This water bottle is my favorite because it keeps my water cold all day even if you leave it in a hot car and the bottle doesn’t sweat. I ordered mine on Amazon. Not to mention reusable bottles are better for the environment than disposable plastic bottles.

I used Kleenex Paper Towels for several things throughout treatment. They come in a pop up box like tissues and were super handy. When I washed and reapplied Aquaphor ointment to my burnt skin I used one of these paper towels because they are soft but don’t leave behind fuzz and they are disposable so I could throw them away. It is gross trying to wash dead skin and ointment out of washrags and this seemed more sanitary since my skin was essentially an open wound and got infected at one point. I also used these paper towels to help clear my mouth of thick stringy saliva (a result of Mucositis). Overall, these are just super handy.

Once my neck incision healed, Vitamin E oil worked wonders on healing my skin and fading my scar.

Saliva stimulating tablets adhere to the inside of your cheek. They can be worn durning the day or night and are designed to coat your mouth with a soothing oral lubricant. This brand also contains Xylitol which freshens your breath and reduces your risk of tooth decay. I got these to use at night because I wake up with a completely dry mouth every morning. I still woke up with a dry mouth so I don’t think they helped with that. If you use them during the day they feel kind of strange because it is attached to your cheek and you feel it when you speak and you would need to remove it to eat. I could drink water with it in my mouth but if you drank anything else keep in mind it will have a slightly minty flavor.

Mary’s Mouthwash or Mary’s Magic Mouthwash is a compounded prescription that usually contains numbing properties and ingredients to heal and reduce inflammation inside your mouth and throat. You can swish and spit it out or swallow it to soothe your throat. This product was helpful in soothing my mouth and throat sores during radiation.

My doctors also suggested using a baking soda and salt water mixture to ease soreness in my mouth. It is best to make a fresh batch daily. I preferred to keep mine in the refrigerator because it felt good to rinse cold water on my sores but at one point I could not tolerate the cold so I kept it at room temperature. Instructions: Rinse your mouth often with a baking soda, salt, and water mouthwash (made with 1 quart water, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt – shake well before each use) to help keep your mouth clean and make you more comfortable.

Aloe and Hydrocortisone sprays helped to ease radiation burns and the rash side effects of Erbitux. The spray was cool and refreshing upon application and it was nice to not have to rub something on my very sensitive and sore skin.

Lidocaine ointment was very beneficial. I had trouble locating it at my local pharmacy but I found a compounding pharmacy that was able to create an ointment for me to use. I dipped a Q-tip in the ointment and applied it to my cheeks, gums, and tongue. This made my entire mouth numb but it allowed me to swallow Ensure nutritional drinks. I wanted to get off of my feeding tube A.S.A.P. and get it out of my body because it was painful and I was hungry. I was able to use this product to numb my mouth three-four times per day so that I could drink three-four Ensures per day. Without Lidocaine, anything other than water was so painful to eat or drink that it brought me to tears. I should note that my swallow study showed that I was clear to swallow thin liquids, so drinking Ensure this way was safe for me.

Toothettes are little sponges on sticks. They come flavored and unflavored. Some people soak them in water and moisten their mouth with them when they are unsafe to swallow. There are also mouth moistening products you can use with them to apply the product all over your oral cavity. I used them to help clear out thick, stringy saliva caused by Mucocitis. I struggled to spit out the saliva and I couldn’t use my tongue to clear my mouth so these were helpful to clear out any thick saliva that accumulated in my mouth that was too difficult to swallow.

I rented a suction machine to use at home to help suck out the saliva that I could not spit out or swallow. I named it Mister Thirsty. I was able to use my health insurance to pay for this. This machine was helpful when my saliva got thick and stringy from Mucocitis, I could use the wand to suck the saliva out of my mouth. I used something like this in the hospital after my hemiglossectomy surgery because I struggled to clear my mouth of food and I drooled a lot since I struggled to get food and drink from the front of my mouth to the back to swallow.

I used Scarguard on my port scars to help diminish their appearance. It really seemed to help flatten the scars and lighten the color if used daily for a few weeks.

Lip Balm! My lips were so dry and damaged during treatment so I applied lip balm all the time. Since I still battle with dry mouth and I can no longer lick my lips, I still apply lip balm throughout the day to ease my dry, cracked lips.