We all know that brushing and flossing regularly is one of the easiest ways to promote good oral hygiene. With regular tooth brushing, you’re helping to clean your teeth of bacteria, plaque buildup, and residue from sticky foods. But if you’re a mouth breather, brushing and flossing may not be doing enough to protect your teeth.
Even if you’re only a mouth breather while you sleep, you may find yourself dealing with serious oral health issues that require the help of a dentist like Bridge Creek Dental. If you notice yourself or a loved one breathing through your mouth more frequently, you need to be aware of the risks so you can prevent further damage.
3 Ways Mouth Breathing Impacts Your Teeth
Mouth breathers are at risk for serious oral health issues, which is why it’s important to have routine cleaning and checkups with your dentist. Here are three problems mouth breathers may face.
Tooth Decay
Do you find yourself waking up each morning with a dry mouth? If so, you may not be breathing normally throughout the night.
When breathing normally, your sinuses add moisture to the air that you inhale. This means that moisture is not being added to the air when you breathe through your mouth, which reduces your saliva production. Chronic dry mouth can result in changes to the pH balance in your mouth and your saliva’s acidity levels, which makes your mouth more susceptible to tooth decay.
Gum Disease
When eating and drinking, you introduce bacteria into your mouth. As a way to rid your mouth of harmful bacteria, it relies on your saliva production to help wash it away. However, dry mouth from mouth breathing significantly reduces your saliva production. Because of this, bacteria isn’t washed away from your teeth and gums as frequently as it should be.
This buildup of bacteria in your mouth often leads to gingivitis, and if it goes untreated, it will lead to gum disease. Gum disease affects more than just your teeth and gums, but increases your risk of other major health problems such as stroke, heart disease, and respiratory illness.
Structural Abnormalities
The human body is designed to breathe out of the nose, which is why mouth breathers often find themselves dealing with health problems. While any mouth breathers can experience tooth decay or gum disease, children who breathe through their mouths are also more at risk for structural abnormalities.
If your child is constantly breathing through their mouth during their developmental years, their body may adapt to this in various ways. Some changes may be small such as their posture, but others may be more noticeable such as the length of their face or shape of their nose and mouth. It may also cause their teeth to come in crooked or for them to have a gummy smile.
Call Bridge Creek Dental for Preventative Dental Care
Mouth breathing puts your oral hygiene at risk, which is why you must have routine preventative dental care to find small problems before they turn into major health concerns. Dry mouth from mouth breathing can lead to a buildup of plaque and bacteria, causing gum disease to develop, eventually leading to tooth loss. Instead of letting these issues fester, preventative dental care is available to help you keep your oral health in check.
Here at Bridge Creek Dental, we specialize in providing preventive dental care for your entire family. If you or your loved ones are experiencing dental issues related to mouth breathing, give our team a call to schedule an appointment in Billings, MT.