Saliva
(Part 2)
What Causes Viscous Saliva in the First Place?
There are various maladies or conditions that have viscous saliva as a symptom. Some common causes of high saliva viscosity include the following.
- Dehydration: If you’re dehydrated then you won’t have enough water to water down the saliva. Saliva comes in viscous without water. Your body’s water content might’ve been expelled through excessive sweating or through sickness.
You should drink enough water to compensate for your condition. It should also resolve viscous saliva by adding water content onto it. Long story short, dehydration makes saliva have higher viscosity and stickiness.
- Dry Mouth: Xerostomia is the formal name of the condition known as dry mouth. You can get a mouth that’s drier than usual when you lack saliva in your mouth. What saliva is there is also highly viscous and lacking water content.
You can get dry mouth as a side effect from taking certain medications. There are also medical conditions that have dry mouth as a symptom.
Finally, dehydration or not drinking enough water or fluids can lead to stickier saliva and dry mouth.
The thickness and stickiness of your viscous saliva roots from your body attempting to moisten your dry mouth but there isn’t enough water content in it to prevent its viscosity.
- Dieting: If your saliva feels too thick and sticky, it might have something to do with what you eat. Saliva is supposed to be a digestion aid, with it being one of several fluids used to break down whatever it is you’re eating.
However, some foods can make your saliva stickier and thicker than normal. To be more specific, eating food with high starch and sugar content can lead to viscous saliva that adheres everywhere, leading to difficulty in swallowing and various oral and dental health problems.
- Smoking: Smokers end up with high spit stickiness because the act of smoking causes the thickening of your spit, making it phlegmatic in texture and overall hard to swallow it.
The viscous saliva can stick to gums and teeth, causing bacterial growth. Therefore, smokers have a higher risk of developing dental and oral health problems such as gum disease, plaque, and dental caries.
Quitting smoking is your best bet in reducing viscous saliva issues and risk for other deadlier conditions. However, that’s easier said than done. If you’re in the middle of quitting, you can reduce viscous saliva in the meanwhile by flossing and brushing.
Use a tongue scraper to remove bacteria on your tongue too. Drink lots of water to reduce saliva viscosity.
- Poor Oral hygiene: Bacterial build-up in the mouth due to poor hygiene or neglecting to brush your teeth twice daily can make the saliva stickier and thicker than usual. Aside from an ENT, you can consult a dentist in case this is what’s causing your viscous saliva blues.
On top of viscous saliva, you can also end up with gum disease (gingivitis or periodontitis) and tooth decay. A prime indicator of poor oral hygiene aside from thicker saliva is bad breath or halitosis.
You can end up with halitosis because of the waste products of a mouth that’s teeming with bacteria. The high bacterial population that’s basically turning your mouth into their own personal toilet produces sulfuric compounds.
- Diseases or Medical Conditions: You could be suffering from some sort of disease or a wide range of conditions, causing you to have viscous saliva as one of the symptoms.
Saliva with thicker and stickier consistency could be a result of any number of maladies. While that symptom might be minor and resolvable through drinking more water, it can be quite uncomfortable or lead to the point of difficulty in swallowing.
Aside from dry mouth and dehydration, other conditions that can cause excessively viscous saliva include diabetes, allergies, and Sjogren’s syndrome.
Most of the time, saliva viscosity changes are temporary and resolvable through treatments or even home remedies.
However, as usual, if the symptom of viscousness persists, consult the nearest specialist doctor or even a general practitioner that can refer you to the right professional.
A doctor or dentist conducting tests can help rule out any underlying conditions through the process of elimination.