Having dry mouth after smoking weed or cannabis is obvious. This condition is usually called cotton mouth. Cotton mouth is one of the effects of smoking cannabis that is uncomfortable to be experienced.
Dealing with other mouth health problems, you might be interested to read How to Treat Shingles in Your Mouth and Traditional Ways to Cure Mouth Ulcer in One Day
Why do you experience dry mouth or cotton mouth after smoking weed?
In the weed or cannabis that you smoke, there are some compounds that are active. These compounds are directly attach to the mouth receptors that control saliva production. This is why once you smoke weed or cannabis, you might feel the dry sensation on your mouth and lips. You might also experience that your mouth and lips become sticky and uncomfortable.
When you experience dry mouth, the activities inside your mouth, such as chewing and swallowing food must be very irritating and uncomfortable.
What are the symptoms of dry mouth?
It is not as simple as being dry, but there are some other symptoms you can check as the following:
- Sticky sensation inside the mouth
- Thirsty frequently
- Sores in the mouth
- Dry throat
- Sometimes feel hard to speak
- Burning sensation
How to get rid of dry mouth after smoking weed?
Dry mouth must be very uncomfortable for you. Here are some solutions that are simple and easy to follow to get rid of dry mouth after smoking weed. Check these ways to get rid of a dry mouth after smoking weed!
1. Sour candy
Though consuming candy is not good for your teeth, believe it or not, sour candy can stimulate saliva production in your mouth. Glands in the mouth mostly responds to the sour taste that produces rush of moisture. It can give you an ease to your dry mouth and provide relieve as long as the candy lasts.
2. Gum
It is noted as the best remedy for getting rid of dry mouth after smoking weed. Sugar-free gum is having xylitol that neutralizes the pH of your mouth. You can fight tooth decay and get rid of the dry mouth at the same time.
3. Lemon
Sucking a slice of lemon or orange will boost the saliva production in your mouth. Lemons and oranges are sour that have refreshing sensation to your mouth and it can flood your mouth moisturizing saliva.
Lemon is also useful for overcoming certain problems, such as stated in Ways to Whiten Teeth with Lemon.
4. Nose breathing
What’s the fastest ways to get rid of a dry mouth after smoking weed? Breathing through your nose might help you to cure the dry mouth. Breathing through your mouth will lessen the moisture level in your mouth that makes it even drier. So, breathing through your nose is better to reduce the moisture loss in your mouth.
5. Avoid caffeine
Caffeine is one of the contributors of dry mouth. Caffeine is diuretic as it will make you urinate more often. While you are having dry mouth, you are dehydrating, and by consuming caffeine in a cup of coffee will make you lose more water in your body. So, consuming caffeine will make the condition of dry mouth worsen.
6. Hydrate your nose using saline
Not only dry mouth, dry nasal passage might be one of the effects of smoking weed. Nasal passage can be dry as well. It will make you more uncomfortable, especially if you breath through your nose to get rid of dry mouth. Spray some saline to hydrate your nose, throat and ear areas and it will make you a little bit relief.
7. Small sip of water
Taking small sip of water once you experience dry mouth will be the simplest way to get rid of it. Small sips of water will comfort your dry mouth as it will moisture the mouth.
8. Humidifier
Humidifiers will decrease the dryness in your mouth. Set the humidifier at home and inhale the air. If you do not have one at home, just simply inhale the steam from boiling water or hot water.
9. Drink using straw
Why should you use straw? When you are drinking using straw, you are taking small amount of water slowly to your mouth. If you are drinking in a big amount of water quickly, the water might spread and go down fast to your throat while your mouth will not be moistened at all. Go slow drinking using straw and you will stimulate the saliva to be produced.
10. Suck an ice cube
Ice cube is another form of water. So, sucking ice cube will also help to moisturize the dry mouth.
Meanwhile, that’s all the ways to get rid of a dry mouth after smoking weed that you can try!
How to prevent getting dry mouth while smoking weed?
Having dry mouth after smoking weed might give you second thought of smoking weed again. You can do some prevention for not getting severe dry mouth again. Here are the ways.
- Consume vitamins. Dry mouth will get worse once you are experiencing vitamin deficiency. Consume food that are rich in vitamin A, B-12, B-2 and C to prevent having dry mouth.
- Smoke well. Use vaporizer to give you cleaner and cooler smoking experience.
- Get your gum. Chewing gum stimulate the glands in your mouth’s saliva.
- Avoid sugary drink. It will lessen the production of saliva. Instead, consume mineral water.
- Drink lot of water. By drinking lot of water, your mouth will stay moisturized and say good bye to dry mouth.
- Stop smoking weed. As we know, smoking weed is very harmful for our health.
- Eating healthy food. It will prevent you from getting worse condition while having dry mouth.
- Exercising. It will stimulate the hydration in your body.
Smoking weed will be comfortable if you do it properly and do some preventive actions after it. Once you are experiencing dry mouth, you can do the treatments above to get rid of it simply. Those methods are simple and easy to follow.
If you are getting other symptoms than the mentioned above, consult with your doctor as the condition might get worse. Good luck on trying!
You might also be interested to read How to Get Rid of Side Effects of Quitting Smoking and Effects of Smoking for Skin.