Morning breath is caused by anaerobic bacteria feeding on food and mucus in a dry mouth during sleep, producing sulfur-based waste. Brushing and scraping the tongue before bed can help reduce its severity. Drinking water and breathing air are the best treatments.
Many of us wake up in the morning to the smell of napalm, otherwise known as morning breath. Morning breath is a potent form of bad breath, the medical term for bad breath, and it’s not always relieved by a quick gulp of mouthwash. Some people rarely develop serious morning breath, but some experts estimate that up to 95 percent of the general population experience morning bad breath from time to time.
There are a number of root causes of morning breath. A trigger is the amount of food debris and mucus that remain in the mouth during the night. During the day, natural saliva and ingested fluids generally keep food and mucus moving past the tongue and up the throat. At night, however, the salivary glands produce very little saliva and the mouth can become very dry. Some anaerobic bacteria living in the oxygen-deprived crevices of the tongue and throat are no longer kept at bay, so they start feeding on food and mucus. Their waste products are mostly sulfur based, which creates a very pungent odor when exposed to air.
When many people reach a stage of deep sleep, their tongues often relax and naturally fall toward the back of the throat. This action prevents substantial levels of oxygen from reaching the back of the mouth during the night hours. The normal aerobic bacteria that protect the mouth cannot function without oxygen, so essentially anaerobic bacteria can continue eating all night without interference. This means that a significant amount of sulfurous waste can be generated in an eight to ten hour period. Morning breath is the result of a nightly binge of sulfur-emitting bacteria.
Even if a person thoroughly brushes both their tongue and teeth and finishes with a strong mouthwash, the body still produces a natural food source for bacteria called mucus. Scraping the tongue and brushing thoroughly before bed, however, can help reduce the severity and duration of morning breath.
There are a number of oral care products available that address morning breath symptoms, but most simply flush away surface waste products or kill a small number of bacteria. The best treatment for morning breath can be breathing air and drinking water. Eventually the population of aerobic bacteria should increase and move the anaerobic bacteria back to their hiding places in the mouth and throat.
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