A partner, family member or friend may be able to help you cope with oral side effects and encourage you to care for your mouth. They could:
- use a torch or the light on a mobile phone to look for red or white patches or sores in the mouth
- do the grocery shopping and buy soft foods or frozen foods that may be soothing to the mouth
- help prepare meals by mashing or pureeing foods in a blender and making gravies or sauces to moisten food
- provide pain medicines 30 minutes before meals
- track your fluid intake (number of glasses of water or other fluids each day)
- keep drinking straws and chewing gum handy
- go to the chemist to buy artificial saliva (or other products prescribed)
- attend appointments with the doctor, nurse, dietitian or speech pathologist.
Podcast: Appetite Loss and Nausea
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Video: Nutrition and cancer
Key resource
Download a PDF booklet on this topic.
More resources
A/Prof Sharon Liberali, Specialist, Special Needs Dentistry, and Director Special Needs Unit, Adelaide Dental Hospital, SA Dental Service, SA; Cecilia Barling, Consumer; Dr Bena Brown, Principal Allied Health Research Fellow in Cancer, and Advanced Speech Pathologist (Oncology), Princess Alexandra Hospital and Centre for Functioning and Health Research, QLD; Lisa Castle-Burns, Head and Neck Cancer Specialist Nurse, Canberra Region Cancer Centre, Canberra Hospital, ACT; Merran Findlay, Executive Research Lead – Cancer Nutrition, Oncology Specialist Dietitian, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, NSW; Jasmin Mazis, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Rick Pointon, Consumer; Prof David Wiesenfeld, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, and Director, Head and Neck Tumour Stream, The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Sue-Ching Yeoh, Oral Medicine Specialist, Sydney Oral Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW.
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