Why does our breath stink in the morning?

Have you ever wondered why, even though you brush your teeth at night, your breath always smells bad in the morning? It’s because bad breath is actually caused by tiny organisms living in your mouth!

Bacteria are one of the smallest living things in the world, and our bodies have over a trillion bacteria living inside them. Most of these bacteria can be found in your mouth, especially at the back of your tongue.

Many of these bacteria are either harmless, or actually help us by eating bad bacteria, producing things our body needs, or eating bits of food that get stuck in our teeth. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of helping us is that the bacteria can make a really bad smell! Brushing your teeth (and especially your tongue) can get rid of enough bacteria to stop the smell, but bacteria reproduce very fast. By the time you wake up in the morning, the number of bacteria is back up to its stinky high!

There is one kind of bacteria in our mouths that isn’t good for us – it lives between our teeth, and is the main cause of tooth decay. Scientists think that this bacteria used to be one of the helpers that got rid of food stuck in our mouths, but that was before humans started eating sugary foods. These bacteria love sugar, and after they eat it, they excrete an acid that rots our teeth!

That’s why the best way to stop tooth decay is to brush our teeth often, and stop eating sugary food!