Do you sleep with your mouth open? Stop it!

Scientists from the University of Otago in New Zealand estimate that the wear and tear on the teeth when we sleep with our mouths open is similar to what happens after drinking a sugary drink just before bed.
When we sleep with our mouths open, the saliva dries up, causing the mouth to lose the antibacterial effect of the saliva.
The oral cavity loses the protective effect of saliva, the pH of the mouth becomes more and more acidic, a fact that favors the development of caries.
Under normal conditions, the pH of the mouth is 7.7, i.e. neutral, experts explain.
But when we sleep with our mouth open the pH of the mouth becomes more acidic, 6.6, while in some participants during the relevant experiment the pH reached 3.6.
According to the researchers, the problem is more pronounced in the back teeth because there the mouth dries more, as well as in men as one third of them are used to sleeping with their mouth open compared to only 5% of women.

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