Your body is composed of around 60% water, and drinking plenty of water helps protect your overall health. Being well hydrated ensures all your body’s organs can work properly and that nutrients are properly distributed.
Bel Canto Dental highlights that drinking water is essential for better dental health because it helps keep the mouth clean and hydrated. Water flushes away excess food particles and helps maintain a neutral pH, preventing bacteria from thriving and contributing to enamel erosion and tooth decay. Staying well-hydrated ensures oral tissues remain moist and supports saliva production, which is 99% water and contains protective minerals like calcium and phosphate. Additionally, drinking water throughout the day helps combat bad breath, often caused by dry mouth, by promoting consistent saliva flow.
Water helps flush out toxins, ensures your muscles can work smoothly and keeps your skin in great shape. However, drinking plenty of water is also essential for a healthy mouth. Staying well-hydrated contributes to your dental health in several ways.
How Does Drinking Water Keep Your Mouth Clean?
Your mouth is host to hundreds of strains of bacteria and cleaning your teeth helps keep their numbers in check, but they soon begin to build up quickly. Drinking plenty of water helps prevent this accumulation and flushes away excess food particles.
Drinking plenty of water keeps your mouth clean by flushing away excess food particles and helping to maintain a neutral pH. Your mouth hosts hundreds of strains of bacteria, and while cleaning your teeth helps, bacteria build up quickly. Water prevents this accumulation, unlike acidic or sugary liquids that allow bacteria to thrive, contributing to enamel erosion and tooth decay. Water leaves nothing harmful behind and helps neutralize acids more quickly, especially after meals when your mouth is more acidic.
How Does Water Hydrate Your Mouth?
Water hydrates your mouth by helping your body produce more saliva, which is 99% water and keeps oral tissues moist. Dry mouth, or xerostomia, is a common problem where people cannot produce enough saliva, often due to medications like antihistamines, antidepressants, and decongestants, or breathing through the mouth. A drier mouth creates an ideal environment for bacteria to thrive. Drinking plenty of water combats this by promoting saliva production, which also contains protective minerals like calcium and phosphate that help protect teeth against decay.
Drinking water throughout the day helps fight bad breath by combating dry mouth, which is a common cause of bad breath, including 'morning breath.' Your mouth naturally becomes drier overnight as saliva production decreases. By promoting consistent saliva flow, water helps keep your mouth moist and reduces the conditions that lead to bad breath, and it’s calorie-free.
How Does Drinking Water Fight Bad Breath?
Often “morning breath” is caused by dry mouth because your mouth is naturally drier overnight as you produce less saliva. Drinking water throughout the day helps fight bad breath, and it’s calorie-free.
Signs That May Indicate You Are Dehydrated
When fluids used by the body to carry out normal functions are not replaced, it causes dehydration. The condition is more serious for older people and children but can affect anyone at any age. Exercising excessively or being in a hot climate can trigger dehydration, and usually, it’s easily treated by drinking water. However, more severe signs of dehydration can include dizziness and confusion, dark-coloured urine, dry eyes and feeling extremely thirsty.
Which Is the Best Water to Drink?
It’s best to stick to drinking regular (still) water rather than carbonated water that may be more acidic. If you want to drink bottled water, check the ingredients as some contain sweeteners and flavouring agents. You can also purchase various types such as alkaline water that can help neutralize acids in the mouth, promoting healthy saliva, teeth and gums.
Another option is ozone-infused water that can help promote healthy gum tissue. However, you don’t need to buy bottled water as tap water here in West Vancouver is absolutely fine and will do a great job at keeping you well-hydrated.
If you have a dry mouth, it’s worth sipping on water frequently or sucking on ice chips. We can also help people with dry mouth and discuss various ways to ensure your mouth feels moister and more comfortable when you visit us here at Bel Canto Dental on the North Shore. For example, we may suggest using over-the-counter saliva substitutes or more frequent checkups and cleanings to help you maintain good oral health more effectively. Call us today at 604-926-7621 or use our appointment request form to book an appointment today.
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