We’ve all experienced it where we go to sleep at night, only to wake up, feeling the taste in our breaths indicate our odor. If you’ve frequently been reading, you’ll find that chronic bad breath equates to having Halitosis. However, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that we have Halitosis when we get morning breath. So what could it be?
Bad breath in the morning is completely normal, and shouldn’t be addressed as a health concern, especially if it goes away after flossing and brushing your teeth, drinking water, or even eating breakfast.
Dr. Sally J Cram, a periodontist, and a part of the American Dental Association, says that “Everyone has morning breath to some degree.” Bad breath in the morning is primarily due to a function of lower saliva production at night. During the day, after we eat our meals, saliva production, apart from brushing and flossing, is what washes away the food particles in our mouths and fights against foul odor. At night, saliva production lowers as your body shuts down certain functions during your sleep. In the more dryer nights, dead cells will start to adhere more on your tongue and in the inside surface of your cheeks. If you’ve taken a Biology class in high school or college, you might even recollect having to scrape some of the dead cells from your cheek and observe them under a microscope. Bacteria digests these dead cells, and emit a strong odor because of that, the one you smell in the mornings.
Smoking can even have an influence on morning breath. Smoking has the tendency to dry out the mouth and throat due to limiting saliva production, similar to what happens when sleeping at night, more so in dry conditions.
Morning breath might not be too big of a deal, but if you sleep with someone, you better think twice about being a little careless about your oral hygiene.
Additionally, you should think before you drink and limit alcohol consumption because alcohol can even cause dry mouth. Dentists say that drinking alcohol will change how your breath smells for about eight to ten hours. You’ve probably experienced this firsthand if you’ve had to be close to someone after they’d been drinking all night. Worse if you’ve had to do a close contact sport with someone the morning after!
Make sure to stay hydrated during the day, as being hydrated will increase saliva production.
Morning breath can be limited by brushing and flossing your teeth, and rinsing with an antibacterial mouthwash, both in the morning when you wake up and at night right when you get to bed. We’re not afraid to say that over and over again so that people get the message. It’s really easy to skip the routine and to slip and fall off the wagon.
Morning breath will generally subside after some saliva production, so start the day with a good breakfast, brush and floss your teeth, and you should be good to go.
If your morning breath does NOT go away, you might have halitosis. Check out Bad Breath Free Forever on solutions for chronic bad breath. Like we said, morning breath is nothing to worry about, but if your bad breath is ongoing, you need to get that checked ASAP.