Maxfacts

Non-malignant conditions affecting the salivary glands are diverse. The corresponding treatment options are equally diverse and may include one or several of the following modalities

• any underlying infections require appropriate antibiotic medication (for example, acute or chronic bacterial infection of a salivary gland);
• acute and/or chronic pain requires appropriate management, by medication or otherwise;
• some conditions require surgical intervention such as resection (removal) of the affected salivary gland(s) (for example, after prolonged infection);
• some conditions require surgical interventions other than resection of the gland (for example, removal of obstructions such as calculi (stones) by open or endoscopic (keyhole) surgery);
• some conditions require long-term management (for example, xerostomia (dry mouth) caused by Sjögren’s syndrome, or by radiotherapy or drooling).

Malignancies of the salivary glands and their treatment are discussed separately. Some of the surgical interventions to treat these malignancies are not fundamentally different from some of the surgical techniques for the treatment of non-malignant conditions of salivary glands discussed in this section.