A childhood scuffle over a bicycle left Martha Rowe with years of pain from hairline facial fractures. It also led to her career as a speech pathologist and to developing a solution to her debilitating dry mouth condition, caused by multiple bouts of surgery to repair her fractured face.
Martha Rowe’s personal experience and her work with hundreds of patients suffering from dry mouth has been life-changing. It led her to research natural remedies and eventually to the development of an all-Australian made dry mouth spray, called Osmist. “It was only when I was in the same situation as many of my patients that I understood that the products I’d been prescribing really didn’t work,” Martha admits. “That’s when I started looking deeply at the science and what could be done.”
Martha worked with patients suffering from severe dry mouth (called xerostomia) and other symptoms such as cracked lips, mouth ulcers and infections. Her understanding of the serious health impacts of dry mouth became apparent when working in aged care where cases of malnutrition and dehydration due to loss of appetite and difficulty swallowing are distressing but not uncommon.
Up to one in 10 Australians regularly experience severe dry mouth. Pollution and environmental factors can contribute. It is often a side effect of prescription medications, infection, nerve problems and some cancer treatments that may damage the normal function of the salivary gland. Martha reached out in 2017 to Flavour Creations’ founder Bernadette Eriksen, who had started the company 22 years ago in her own kitchen. The Brisbane-based specialist food and beverage manufacturer was immediately impressed by Martha’s business approach and touched by her personal story.
Ms Eriksen assigned Flavour Creations scientists to develop, refine and test Martha’s formula and bring the new dry mouth spray to the market and no now available in pharmacies and online. “This was a product made out of my own desperation and my own pain,” Martha said.
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