Do you Breathe Through Your Mouth During Sleep?
If the answer is Yes, here are a few things that you need to know about this habit and the effects it might have on your Dental & Overall health.
A study conducted at the Sir John Walsh Research Institute at the University of Otago in New Zealand, found that people who breathe though their mouth had a huge drop in their oral pH levels. Usually the pH level should be neutral viz. 7 – any value below this indicates acidity and above it indicates a more alkaline/basic medium.
People who slept with their mouths open has pH values that dropped drastically with time, during sleep. The increase in acidity could eventually result in damages to the teeth enamel. This will in turn increase the chances for cavities and highly vulnerable teeth.
Nighttime mouth-breathing is common, even if you have no symptoms of nasal obstruction or nasal airway problems during the day.
We refer to this phenomenon as “recumbency-induced nasal airway obstruction“. Basically this means that during sleep several common physiological changes take place that cause the nose to block shut or the sidewalls of the nose to collapse, forcing mouth breathing dependency, http://affectivebrain.com/?attachment_id=5775.
