Dry mouth comes from a variety of sources, including sleep apnea, dehydration, or an underlying medical condition, even medications. But regardless of where it comes from, you need to ensure that your oral health remains a top priority while you have dry mouth symptoms.
HOW DOES DRY MOUTH HURT ORAL HEALTH?
Our saliva is a miraculous thing. It holds the keys when it comes to dental health because of all of its components. For example, while you sleep, your saliva is meant to repair some of the damage that has been done to the surface of your teeth—if you get dry mouth during the night from sleep apnea or from sleeping with your mouth open, there is no maintenance that can happen. Further, your saliva has a neutralized component that helps break down acid residue from the foods eaten during the day. This is necessary because if acid is left on your teeth, it greatly increases cavities’ rate of decay and frequency.
So, dry mouth hurts your oral health by not allowing your saliva to do its job. Thankfully, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to try to combat dry mouth while you’re awake.
SOME TIPS
Number one is to drink more water. This seems self-explanatory, but most adults are not drinking all of the water they should be during the day, which can contribute to dry mouth. Secondly, avoid salty foods and caffeine. Both of these are dehydrators to your body; they make you thirsty, and then when you become thirsty and don’t provide your body with water, your body can shut down to save water, which leads to dry mouth. If you’d like to know more about dry mouth and how to combat it, give our office a call.