Dry mouth is that condition when your mouth becomes dry due to lack of saliva. What causes dry mouth? There are many causes of dry mouth but identifying the root cause of having a dry mouth is very important for getting rid of it. However, there are some dry mouth causes which sometimes you cannot avoid and need remedies to cope up with them. These include:
- Drugs or medicines for diarrhea, blood pressure, allergy etc.
- Smoking.
- Talking too much if you are a very talkative person.
Dry mouth at night especially feels awful doesn’t it? Well that’s not the only reason you should treat your dry mouth immediately. Dry mouth can also cause your teeth and gums to decay, as the saliva in our mouth, which is fighting against germs and cavity, is reduced. Saliva also lubricates food and helps our taste buds in tasting food, which are all affected by the lack of saliva.
Now how do you get rid of that dry mouth? There are some simple and easy remedies that you can try at your home for a dry mouth situation.
“15 home remedies to cure your dry mouth problem. Very simple home remedies to keep your dry mouth moistened. Try out these home remedies to combat mouth dryness.”
15. Sip On Loads And Loads Of Water
The simplest dry mouth treatment is by drinking water. When you have a dry mouth, your first instinct would be to drink water. And you would not be wrong. But drinking a lot of water does not help in bringing your saliva back. Instead, it just washes away the saliva that is left in your mouth.
- The correct way of drinking water, when you have a dry mouth, is to sip water at regular intervals.
- Keep a re-usable bottle with a narrow mouth or a fixed straw with you and sip a little amount of water every 20-30 minutes.
- This will help with the lubrication of food and will reduce the awful dry mouth feeling. But you will have to do more of the other remedies, to get your saliva production back on track.
14. Breathe Through Your Nose
Another simple dry mouth treatment involves breathe through your nose and not your mouth. I am telling you to do this because it helps in lung functioning and also because our nose filters out the bacteria that might get into our body along with air. There are many other advantages of breathing through your nose, including the dry mouth solution.
It doesn’t actually help in saliva production, it just ensures that the saliva that you do have left in your mouth, doesn’t get dried off.
- The proper way of doing this is breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.
- The outside air that we breathe in is at a lower temperature and humidity when we breathe it in and it evaporates the saliva in our mouth when we breathe in via mouth.
- The air that we breathe out contains a higher level of moisture and a higher temperature, which causes condensation of water in our mouth, increasing the water content.
13. Reduce Caffeine Intake
The first steps in getting your saliva back are to stop or reduce the things that make your mouth even drier. This includes caffeine. Caffeine is good for heart and blood circulation but it can make your mouth drier and can be one of the basic dry mouth causes.
Caffeine is present in coffee, tea, chocolates, energy drinks, some medicines, etc. Intake of caffeine makes us feel awake and it acts almost immediately. Dry mouth is one of the side effects of caffeine but this side effect does not kick in until caffeine intake is high.
- You do not need to stop drinking coffee or eating chocolates.
- You just need to reduce the daily intake of them.
12. Stop Smoking
If you’re smoking and wondering what causes dry mouth? you’re missing a point. This should not come out as a surprise, because smoking is the element to almost all of the health problems out in the world. From a dry mouth, to a lung or mouth cancer, smoking plays a vital role in causing the disease and in the growth of that disease.
- The problem with smokers is that it is useless to ask them to quit smoking.
- So, the other, more achievable solutions are to either reduce smoking or to use electronic cigarettes that are less harmful.
- Smoking should be completely avoided but if that’s not possible then at-least reduce smoking gradually to as low as possible.
11. Tea
Green tea is a perfect DIY solution for this problem Although I mentioned above, that tea contains caffeine and caffeine intake needs to be reduced, there are 2 particular types of tea that are beneficial in dry mouth problems, green tea and chamomile herbal tea. They are both very much preferred as stimulants of saliva production.
- Green tea, in contrast to drying results of other teas, provides comfort and fights off the dryness due to its poly-phenol oxidation level.
- Chamomile is a type of flower which is used as a herb in many conditions.
- Chamomile tea tinctures can be bought and used with natural tea as it effectively helps getting rid of the problem of dry mouth at night.
- It is recommended that you take each type of tea at-least once in a day.
“15 solutions for the dry mouth problem. How to cure dry mouth at home. Dry mouth symptoms and treatments. Dry mouth treatments that can be done at home. Dry mouth causes and remedies.”
10. Use Sugar Free Stuff
Now on to the tips that will increase the production of saliva, we first have the sugar-free things. Sugar can be one of the main dry mouth causes. Sugar-free stuff out there, on the market shelves are not just for people who are on a diet or have diabetes problem. Sugar-free edibles also help in increasing saliva production.
The best way to increase intake of sugar-free food is to use sugar-free gum or candy. Take a sugar-free gum and keep chewing it as long as you can and you will immediately notice the decrease in dryness of your mouth. But be careful; as large use of sugar-free edibles may cause cramps or diarrhoea for some people.
9. Oil Pulling
It is one of the ancient, and very effective, techniques for increasing saliva flow in your mouth, and helps to keep your mouth moist. It helps in a lot of other problems as well, such as bad breath, so it is a very good technique for oral health.
It is very simple to perform and can be done with any edible vegetable oil. The preferred oils are coconut oil or sesame oil, as they both are tasteless. This method is particularly useful if you’re experiencing the problem of dry mouth at night.
- Before you brush your teeth at night, put one tablespoon of the oil in your mouth but don’t swallow it.
- Don’t worry if you do swallow some, as the oils are edible.
- Swish the oil around in your mouth for about 15 minutes and then spit it out.
- Rinse your mouth with some warm water.
8. Aloe Vera
Another ancient and very effective dry mouth treatment is the use of Aloe-Vera. Aloe-Vera is a shot stemmed plant or shrub. Its leaves are thick and contain a gel-like juice inside. It is very good for hair as well. It is very effective against dry mouth. It also protects the sensitive tissue in the mouth and enhances the sensitivity of taste buds. The only problem with Aloe Vera is that it tastes a bit bitter.
Aloe Vera can be used in many ways.
- You can take out Aloe Vera juice and drink very small quantities (1/4 cup), about 3 times a day.
- If it is hard for you to drink Aloe Vera juice then you can just rinse your mouth with it 3-4 times a day.
7. Baking Soda
Yes! Surprisingly the dry, powdery baking soda makes for one of the best home remedies for a dry mouth. It is another ancient, well known and effective remedy. Especially in the condition of dry mouth at night, this is the perfect solution. It is easy to make at home and only requires baking soda, salt, sugar and lime juice.
- You just have to mix ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 3-4 drops of lime juice.
- Drink it at-least once a day to eliminate the dryness.
6. Use Of Lemon
Lemons are another effective saliva stimulants which makes them a perfect dry mouth treatment. Lemons are known to water your mouth immediately when you take some of its juice. A drop of lemon has such a strong and tangy taste, that it sends a jolting signal to your brain, which forces the immediate production of saliva to dissolve the lemon in it. Lemon is also acidic, which cleans your mouth to give you a fresh breath. Many of the toothpastes also contain lemon for fresh breath.
It is very easy to take, and can be taken in any of the following form, whichever is convenient for you.
- Make lemonade without sugar and keep it with you in a bottle.
- Sip through this lemonade throughout the day.
- Whenever you get the chance, cut a small piece out of a lemon and lick it. Add some salt over it too, to enhance your taste buds.
- Add lemon to whatever meals you eat.
5. Use Of Ginger And Cardamom
Ginger and cardamom are usually used in many dishes for their aromatic smell. They both are known for stimulants of saliva. It makes our mouth feel fresh and it also makes us feel hungry. They are not expensive and are very easily available in markets.
They can be taken in many ways.
- They can be taken with tea.
- Add one pod of cardamom and a very small piece of ginger. It will make your tea smell good and refreshing too.
- If you don’t drink tea then you can add ginger and cardamom to a cup of hot water and honey and drink it twice or thrice a day. Especially effective if you’re experiencing dry mouth at night.
- A small piece of ginger and a pod of cardamom can be chewed twice or thrice a day too. It helps the most, if you chew them after your meals.
4. Chillies
Yes chillies! The mouthwatering, sweating hot chillies that bring tears to your eyes also work like lemons. You’ll be surprised how effectively chillies work as dry mouth treatment. They stimulate all the water-producing glands of our body. It is very effective to enhance saliva glands as well as tear and sweat glands.
- The best way is to eat chilly dishes or sprinkle chillies such as cayenne pepper on your dishes.
- You can also make a tasty chilly juice by mixing rosemary, mint and aniseed to a cup of water and use it to gargle. It helps freshen your breath too.
3. Avoid Certain Foods
Just as some of the foods listed above are helping to increase saliva production, many foods and drinks obstruct the production of saliva, or just infect tooth and other parts because of lack of saliva. These foods must be avoided or at-least reduced until the dry mouth problem persists.
- Acidic foods, such as tomatoes, should be avoided as they have an added effect of tooth decay and can be one of the dry mouth causes.
- Toasted bread, crackers and other dry stuff should be avoided as they tend to further dry out your mouth.
- Sugar should also be avoided. All the gums or candies mentioned above should be sugar-less.
2. Breathe Steam
Breathing steam is also an old technique usually used for flu and cough remedies. It gives a sort of warm massage to the throat and airways and its high water content moisturizes the airways and mouth.
There are a lot of steam breathing machines available in the market that can be used.
- These machines have controllers to control the amount of steam coming out to get the appropriate amount that doesn’t irritate you.
- If you don’t have the machine, you can boil a pan of water (you can also use a kettle) and then breathe the steam by putting your face at a safe distance above the pan and covering your head with a piece of thick cloth to prevent steam from escaping to surroundings.
1. Use A Humidifier
The most problematic time, for people experiencing dry mouth problems, is morning time when they wake up. This is because, while we are sleeping, we subconsciously breathe from our mouth, which causes the mouth to further dry out. It is very hard to train yourself to breathe from your nose while sleeping.
- The easier approach is to use an air humidifier at night.
- An air humidifier increases the humidity of air and while you sleep and breathe through your mouth, the humid air does not evaporate the moisture in mouth; rather it increases the moisture.
These remedies are one of the best dryness-busting remedies out there. They promote the production of saliva in mouth but it is necessary to reduce the things that reduce saliva production. Even if, after trying all these remedies, your dryness does not go away, then you should immediately consult a doctor, as you probably have some serious problem with the saliva glands. Sometimes it is also associated to the mind, for which a psychologist can be of much help.
Do’s and Don’ts
- Don’t eat too much of chillies as it can be harmful for your stomach if consumed too much.
- While doing the aloe vera gargle, apply some aloe vera gel on your face too. It immediately refreshes your skin.
- Slowly and gradually train yourself to breathe via your nose.
