The Dental Threats of Mouth Breathing At Night And What You Can Do

You have probably heard the conventional dental advice: floss daily, brush your teeth two to three times a day and see your denture specialist every six months. But new research and technologies continue to change the field of dentistry and oral surgery, and new guidelines and advice are starting to emerge that you might not have thought about before.

Breathing through your mouth at night is something that, unfortunately, you don’t realize you are doing. It probably annoys you to wake up with a dry mouth in the morning, but there are a number of problematic causes and effects that come from being a nocturnal mouth-breather, including the effect it can have on your teeth.

A recent study by the Dentsply Research Foundation published in the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation determined that nocturnal mouth-breathers are at a higher risk for cavities because of a lower intraoral pH level in your saliva that comes with a drier mouth. The study, and others, have proved rather definitively that there is a link between breathing through the mouth at night and tooth decay. A dryer mouth also makes it much easier for bacteria to latch onto your teeth and eat away at them.

So if being a mouth-breather is so problematic, is there any way to fix it? Fortunately, there are ways to retrain your brain and your body so you will stop. If you have allergies, try taking allergy medicine that will help unblock your sinuses. A simple saline nasal spray can help prevent mild nasal congestion at night. There are also commercially available nasal strips that work to physically open up the air passages to also prevent congestion. Large tonsils might also be the cause of the problem, which can and possibly should be surgically removed. Try new exercises that force you to be aware of and regulate your breathing, like yoga. Finally, during your everyday life, consciously breathe through your nose as much as possible and fix your posture.

If you suffer from too many dental cavities, you might want to consider getting dental implants or dentures made. Canadian Denture Centres can outfit you with tooth implants or dentures that will end any oral discomfort and put your smile back in order by making your mouth feel a whole lot better.