Sleeping with your mouth open damages your teeth

Sleeping with your mouth open causes damage to your teeth. Under normal conditions, the pH level in the mouth, the measure of acidity or alkalinity, is a neutral level of 7.7.

But sleeping with the mouth open reduced this to a mildly acidic average a pH of 6.6.

In some people, acidity levels rose as high as 3.6. and this is high enough to erode tooth enamel and akin to having a glass of orange juice or can of fizzy drink before bed.

This is because breathing through the mouth dries it out - removing the protective effect of saliva, which has a natural ability to kill the bacteria in the mouth that produce acid.

As acid levels rise through the night, tooth erosion and decay can begin.

Tooth decay in mouth sleepers is often worse at the back, because the back of the mouth tends to get drier than the front.

Mouth-breathing may be a causal factor for dental diseases such as enamel erosion and caries.’