As we sleep, our salivary glands are less active, but the bacteria are not. Our saliva rinses the mouth and washes away the bacteria that cause bad breath, it helps the ingestion and breakdown food particles and removes them from the mouth. People who normally don’t breathe through their mouth may do so while they sleep, drying the oral tissues even further. Another reason for bad breath is, the thirst and starvation condition the body is in while we sleep. For these reasons there is a high risk of having an embarrassing bad breath when we wake up in the morning.
To prevent the bad breath we need to deal with the underlying reasons by:
- Brush and floss our teeth before we go to bed. At time Dr. Kaufman will prescribe other appliances or products to achieve a clean mouth.
- For some individuals, like smokers, there are large deposits of bacteria hiding in the folds of the tongue, that can be removed with a tongue scraper.
- Drink water before you go to bed and have a bottle next to your bed if you feel your mouth is dry at night.
- Limit sugar intake before bedtime, to decrease the available food for the bacteria.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information about bad breath or to schedule an appointment to examine the condition of the dentition .