Although many of us wake up with morning breath the cause of bad breath in the morning is a mystery to most people. In this article we are going to take a quick look at what causes morning breath, how it relates to the more serious problem of halitosis and some action steps we can take to prevent it.
Morning breath is often accompanied by a dry sticky mouth, sometimes called cotton mouth. A dry mouth is an environment in which the bacteria that cause bad breath thrive. The reason the bacteria will grow so rapidly in a dry mouth is because there is less saliva to wash not only the bacteria themselves away but the particles of food and cell debris upon which the bacteria thrive.
With such an abundant food source they are able to grow rapidly and produce foul smelling volatile sulpher compounds. This is obviously something we want to avoid so we need to know what it is that causes the mouth to become dry so we can avoid it
During the night we do not take on board any water as we are sleeping and therefore upon waking we are naturally in a state of mild dehydration. This is not helped by the fact that very few of us drink the recommended minimum of 2 liters of water per day and that a lot of us drink tea and coffee before going to bed. Tea and coffee are both drinks that contain caffeine which is a diuretic that increases dehydration further.
The best way to combat morning breath is to make sure you stay well hydrated throughout the day and drink some water prior to sleeping rather than a diuretic like tea, coffee or alcohol. By doing so there will be a less marked effected on hydration levels during the overnight fating period and less chance for sleep to cause bad breath in the morning!
Bad Breath CausesMany people simply do not get or understand the bad breath causes that is creating their breath problem.
This is leaving them in a very frustrating and dangerous position. Why?