Why does it smell bad in the morning?

Teorinfo
2 min readJul 6, 2021

Teorinfo ~ It seems like everyone has woken up in the morning with breath that is not too fragrant. The condition in which an unpleasant odour comes out of our mouth is often referred to as “morning breath”.

How does this smell accumulate in the mouth when we are sleeping soundly without eating anything? When we sleep, the amount of saliva in our mouths decreases.

Why does it smell bad in the morning?
Why does it smell bad in the morning?

Saliva has a vital role in “sweeping” small particles of food residue left in our mouths after eating. When the amount of saliva decreases, of course, the remaining food remains more than when saliva floods the mouth.

Then, what is this leftover food that gives off a bad smell? Hmm, not quite right! The leading cause of the fragrance is the bacteria in our mouth that chews food residue and produces a gas called Volatile Sulfur Compound.

It is this gas that, if accumulated in the mouth, will cause an unpleasant odour in the morning. Sleeping with your mouth open will make the smell worse in the morning because breathing through your mouth will make your mouth drier.

If you want to check for bad breath, you can lick your tongue against your hand and wait for the licked part to dry. If it smells bad, it is an indication that your breath smells terrible.

In addition, we can also try another method where we see the reflection of the tongue on the glass. The language is pink and clean, indicating fresh breath. If there is a thick white coating, chances are you should avoid mouth breathing in front of your friends.

Then, how do we deal with it? Actually, there’s a lot we can do. Brushing your teeth before bed, using dental floss or gently scraping the tongue’s surface can clean the mouth more thoroughly and reduce food residue.

Bacteria in the mouth will also be deprived of food and excrete less gas. Even if we don’t get rid of it completely, we can at least try to reduce the foul odour coming out of our mouths.

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