The Cause of That Sour Taste in Your Mouth
Ever wonder what causes that sour taste in your mouth? We’ve all experienced it at one time or another, sour mouth, and bad breath. There’s one reason for that sour taste and bad breath, but there is more than one cause that may be behind it. Let’s take a closer look.
Basics
Anaerobic bacteria are the culprits that produce the sulfur smelling bad breath, and sour taste you may experience in the morning. This bacteria that causes bad breath actually breeds on the back of your tongue so it’s only natural that you can smell and taste it’s sourness. Saliva breaks down this bad breath bacteria during the day. At night your saliva production is greatly reduced which allows the bad breath bacteria to multiply unchecked, accumulating on the back of the tongue. This results in a coating you can see, smell and taste.
Underlying Causes
Post-nasal drip is one cause for sour mouth and bad breath. Nasal mucous is high in protein and actually feeds the bad breath bacteria, increasing its growth rate, resulting in sour tasting build-up and bad breath smell.
Heartburn may also be a source of sour taste and bad breath. If your esophagus relaxes during digestion, stomach acid and food particles are allowed to wash back up to the back of your mouth. The result? Sour, bad breath.
Finally, a condition called Zenker’s diverticulum allows some food particles to be trapped in a pouch in your esophagus. If you lay down after eating, the decaying food falls out of the pouch and winds up in the back of our throat, causing a sour taste as well as bad breath.
To Conclude …
Any of these causes may induce the production of the bad breath bacteria. That is the real reason behind bad breath and sour mouth. Using a tongue scraper will help to reduce the bacterial scum on your tongue that contributes to your bad breath, but any suspected medical condition should be checked out by a qualified physician for diagnosis and treatment. Bad breath and sour tongue may be symptoms of a larger problem.
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I have this bad breath and sour taste dont know what to do about it.
did it ever get resolved? i had the same problem foe 3 years
everyone has had this happen to them: every time i eat sour or hot foods my tounge goes numb and stays that way until a couple days later. what happens to the taiste buds? does the hot or sour food burn off, damage, or kill them? also every time i chew gum, the menty taiste ocasionaly stays for days weeks, or even months and it just comes and goes…? i do not get how that works.
omg thats nasty i hope i never have this problem
As with Rafael and Kathy above, I have a sour taste on my tongue — for the past 3 months. The taste buds seem somewhat swollen, and my tongue seems to be coated with gray up the center. I’ve had a full physical work-up including bloodwork. Healthy! I’m physically active and feel fine. But food tasted sour, no matter what it is. Any advice will be deeply appreciated.
I just gargle with hydrogen peroxide for the first time. My son mentioned that our dentist told him you can gargle with it for bad breath or to reduce mucous. I saw on the bottle listed under uses that they recommend doing this for sour mouth. It worked!
Like Rafael & Kathy above, I too have a sour taste on my tongue — but no bad breath. My medical practitioner had no advice. I’ve had it for 3 months now. The taste buds seem somewhat swollen. The back of my tongue is gray. Other than this sour taste (that steals enjoyment of food, of course), I feel quite healthy and active, and with a full physical & blood work-up, I have been declared healthy. I would deeply appreciate advice/explanation/whatever concerning this unpleasant development.
I never noticed or paid attention before but my boyfriend is always t melling me my breath smells sour. I can taste it so I use my tounge scraper and a few hours later I have that same taste in my mouth no matter what. I feel perfectly healthy and never thought of it as a problem till now. I don’t really know what ot do?
i have been having a sour taste in my mouth and ive noticed it comes when im really upset over something or anxious? do any of you know the reason and i also suffer with gastric accid could that be the cause?
yo tambien es toy portoda una semana esperimentando mi boca amarga yestoy preocupada si tusabes la respuesta dimela
hi, av got this serious pain on my tongue, i noticed theres a small wound at on side,so painful that i cant eat,so pepperrish, any idea on wat to use
would antibiotics help. reply asap
Did you ever get an answer? My have same pain on my tongue. Also have sour taste in my mouth.
You may want to check with your Dentist to make sure that you do not have Geographic Tongue. At times my tongue will be painful and have small wounds that looks like a map has been drawn on my tongue and it can be painful to eat. It comes and goes; especially if I eat something too spicey or with alot of acid in it. There is nothing you can do, but to wait unitl it subsides and then you are find again until it happens again.
I’ve had metallic taste in mouth too, but it’s due to cigarettes smoked the night before. When I don’t smoke’em there’s no metallic taste in the morning.
I have the same symptoms. My brother in law just died from amyloidosis that also created the same complaint. Let me know if you find the cause to your problem.