What should you do to prevent dry mouth in winter?
The winter season accompanied by cold weather, freezing temperatures, long nights, jet stream winds, and especially drier air has a strong impact on your health. Besides common cold and flu, you would have various oral discomforts like chapped lips, cold sores, sensitivity in teeth during the cold season. Right?
They are not uncommon and go on their own once the bone-chilling weather drops off. In this article, we are going to discuss one such cold-related dental problem. Winter dry mouth.
Is it astounding that cold weather causes dry mouth? Keep reading to know about it and tips to confront it.
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How do winters/cooler weathers cause dryness in your mouth?
Dry mouth occurs when there is insufficient salivation in our mouth. During summer, the extensive hot temperature dehydrates our body thereby our salivary glands do not produce enough saliva and tend to dry mouth.
On the other hand, the cold air sucks the moisture out of everything so that the wintertime humidity is low. This is the main reason why we have dry mouths during cold seasons and place them at high altitudes.
In such cases, our lungs have to work harder to moisten the air we breathe and warm it up. It consumes more energy due to which the body fluids excrete with urination. Such frequent loss of body fluids also dehydrates your body and causes dry mouth.
Similarly, common cold and flu are inevitable in winter seasons and cold places. This makes the nose congested or stuffy and pushes the sufferer to breathe through his/her mouth. When you keep your mouth open for a long time to breathe, the saliva will dry out.
How can we combat such winter dry mouth?
Hydrating your body is the best way to prevent winter dry mouth. You should hydrate your body even if the temperature is low to salivate your mouth.
You may not feel thirsty and sweat less during winters but your body would still lose moisture. Hence you should not reduce your water intake. Here are some smart ways to hydrate yourselves during cold seasons:
1) Drink water at warm or room temperature
Drinking water at room temperature is recommended because our body absorbs cold water rapidly than warm water. It means warm water keeps you hydrated longer than cold water. Moreover, steam rising from the lukewarm water entering the nasal passage takes care of reducing sinus congestion.
2) Replace caffeine with soups
In winters, many people prefer fluids like hot tea, coffee, hot chocolates, alcohol to keep themselves warm. Those liquids are loaded with high sugar whilst they make us pee more (i.e.) our body will be quickly dehydrated if we take those beverages.
Hence we recommend healthy soups. They are a good source of nutrients and their salt particles make the water compounds retain in our body for more time.
3) Take natural hydrating drinks
Besides water and soups, you can take advantage of other natural drinks for hydration. Remember that natural hydrating drinks are highly flavorful as well having high nutritional value.
Some of the healthy fluids that supply electrolytes to hydrate your body and prevent dryness in the mouth include:
- Coconut water
- Fruit-infused water
- Milk
- Green Tea
- Herbal tea
- Aloe Vera juice
- Cucumber juice
4) Eat Hydrating foods
Fruits and Vegetables have high water content as well as having nutrients. Hence taking fruits, veggies along with your main meal keeps you hydrated throughout the day thereby you can get rid of dry mouth caused by cold weather.
Note: Chewing sugarless chewing gums is also helpful in preventing winter dry mouth because it encourages the salivary glands to produce more saliva to reduce dryness in the mouth.
5) Place a humidifier in your room
As we saw earlier, the cold air leeches moisture from the air and makes us breathe dry air. Hence you should indulge in activities to moisten your environment.
It means placing an in-home humidifier in the room where you spend most time will help you in preventing regular & seasonal dry mouth.
Bottom line
Cold weather also causes dryness in the air that has havoc on your mouth. Winter dry mouth is one of those effects. Keeping yourselves hydrated even during the cold season is mandatory to prevent & overcome this dental problem.
Want to know more tips to dental-friendly dehydration tips to follow during cold seasons or at cold places? Contact our dentists. We are ready to help.
