How to Deal With the Dry Mouth at Night

You may be familiar with the situation when you had to get up during the night with a dry mouth. The reasons for dry mouth can range from being as simple as keeping the mouth open to the more complex one such as side effect of a medication or simply a byproduct of any health condition. Either way, mouth dryness is quite uncomfortable.

Signs and symptoms of dry mouth

You get the dry mouth when your salivary glands do not product enough saliva to keep your mouth moist. Saliva is very important as it washes away the food debris and re-mineralizes the tooth enamel. If you do not have enough saliva in your mouth, you may be at the risk of getting your teeth decayed.

Apart from the fact that lack of saliva can cause cavities, it can also cause discomfort in your mouth. There are a few signs that you can look at in order to know that you have the problem of having mouth dryness in the night.

• Bad breath
• Sore and dry throat
• Sticky saliva (which usually causes sticky feeling in the mouth)
• Cracked lips
• Sores in the mouth
• An unpleasant change of taste

What causes mouth dryness or xerostomia?

You don’t need to worry if you get mouth dryness occasionally. It can be simply due to dehydration. However, the consistency of this problem can suggest that you have an issue to resolve. Studies suggest that the major reason for consistent dry mouth may be the medication you are on. Muscle relaxants and anti-depressants are the typical medications which can result in dryness of mouth.

Moreover, there are some health conditions which can result in mouth dryness. Diabetes and the autoimmune disorder Sjogren's syndrome are the most common reasons for xerostomia. Cancer and its treatment can also turn out to be the disturbing reasons for dry mouth.

Bad oral habits such as tobacco and alcohol consumption can also result in the dryness of mouth. These bad oral habits can result in the damage to salivary glands, leading to the reduced production of saliva.

How to prevent mouth dryness

If your problem of mouth dryness is due to dehydration, you can get it covered by drinking a plenty of water throughout the day and before going to bed. This problem can also result by medications. In such situation, you will have to make sure that you do something to stimulate the production of saliva. Chewing sugar-free gum and using a bedroom humidifier can help in this regard.

You also need to get treatment for the root cause of the mouth dryness. If it’s the medication that’s causing mouth dryness, you can visit your dentist to discuss about those medications. If it’s a health condition which is causing xerostomia, you will need to get that condition treated.