Detail Cantuman

ABSTRACT
Introduction: Hyposalivation is a common problem experienced by head and
neck (H&N) cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. Hyposalivation can cause
negative effects on the physical aspects of making oral mucositis, pain during
eating and talking as well as psychological effects that cause feeling of discomfort
sadness and, ultimately, depression. Many nonpharmacological interventions can
be done for hyposalivation that occur in patients, among which are chewing gum
and cryotherapy because they are easy to do, easy to access, inexpensive and have
minimal side effects. However, the effectiveness of these interventions is not yet
clear. Hence, this study is aimed to determine the effectiveness of chewing gum
versus cryotherapy to increase salivary volume in H&N cancer patients
undergoing radiotherapy.
Methods: A quasi-experimental time series group design to determine the most
effective time to influence the increase in salivary volume. This research was
conducted on 36 respondents H&N cancer undergoing radiotherapy with four
times measurement are pretest-posttest on the 3rd, 5th, and 7th day of
intervention between February and March 2020. Subjects were chosen using
consecutive sampling. Chewing gum group will chew gum six (6) pieces/day and
cryotherapy group will suck on ice cubes five (5) minutes before and after
radiotherapy. The spitting method was used to collect saliva and the data were
analyzed using General Linear Model-Repeated Measure (GLMRM).
Results: Chewing gum is more effective to increase salivary volume than
cryotherapy. The GLMRM within subjects at four (4) times measurement showed a
significant difference between chewing gum and cryotherapy group with p value
<0.05 on the 7th day. Subjects in the chewing gum group had better salivary
volume increment than cryotherapy group.
Conclusion: This study showed that chewing gum is more effective to increase
salivary volume on patient H&N cancer undergoing radiotherapy because chewing
gum has higher salivary volume increment than cryotherapy groups