Measuring the symptomatic, physical, emotional and social impacts of dry mouth: A qualitative study.

Objective: To explore the impacts of dry mouth in order to develop a comprehensive condition-specific OHRQoL measure.

Background: Dry mouth has been shown to have significant, if not more severe impacts on OHRQoL, than dental caries. Yet there remain few studies reporting on how to develop a comprehensive measure of the impact of dry mouth on OHRQoL.

Impairment effects, disability and dry mouth: Exploring the public and private dimensions.

Existing accounts of dry mouth concentrate on the medical dimensions and almost completely neglect to consider its social dimensions. Simultaneously, debates on disability have highlighted an apparent split between the individual (medical) and social models of disability. The concept of 'impairment effects' aims to address this dichotomised approach.