Even the dog leaves the room
Have you ever wondered why your breath is foul in the morning? Well here’s the surprising reason why it’s stinky and what you can do about it.
Bad breath – morning or otherwise is essentially caused by the millions of bacteria that you have in your mouth – when you sleep you produce less saliva, which means there’s more of them around your mouth.
Keciaf Byer on Quora broke it down for us,
“The key to understanding why our breath smells first thing in the morning is to first understand why it doesn’t smell the rest of the time. As we go about our usual daylight business, bacteria are at work breaking down all the amino acids, proteins, and other chemicals left behind in our mouths from our last meal. This process produces volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) like hydrogen sulphide, dimethyl sulphide, and methyl mercaptan, which are responsible for the funk.
“In our waking hours, our own saliva washes away the bacteria before they can do their smelly damage; when we fall asleep, our saliva production calls it a night, too. In the absence of much saliva, the VS C-causing bacteria run wild, and the sulfuric compounds build up until their grand unveiling in the morning.
“It’s a simple equation—mouth plus bacteria minus saliva equals yuck”
So what can we do about it?
Chinmoy Hazarika, who is a Dentist, gave a few suggestions on Quora to help you awake feeling a little more humane.
Brush your teeth
Make sure you actually brush your teeth before you go to bed – even if you’re really, really drunk…
Flossing
Flossing “is a good way to keep plaque and tartar buildup at bay. Oral-B, Colgate etc manufacture good dental flosses that help clean areas between your teeth that normal tooth brushing may miss out”.
Mouth Rinse
“Is another good way, though it works as an add-on to your mechanical method of brushing and flossing”. Check out Amazon’s range of mouthwashes here.
