Saliva During Pregnancy: Causes & Prevention

Women experience a multitude of changes during the nine months of their pregnancy. Producing more saliva during pregnancy is among the many changes a woman experiences. You should not worry as it is a common condition and does not harm you or your baby. In this article, we will understand when does excess saliva start in pregnancy, what causes excessive salivation during pregnancy and how to prevent it.

Causes of excess saliva during pregnancy

It’s completely normal to experience excess saliva during pregnancy. This is known as ptyalism or sialorrhea. Excessive salivation during pregnancy is called ptyalism gravidarum. Normally, our salivary glands produce about 1.5 quarts of saliva daily but it often goes unnoticed because we swallow it continuously and unconsciously. However, during pregnancy the body begins to either produce more saliva or swallow less, which causes you to feel more saliva during pregnancy.

When can I experience too much saliva during pregnancy?

Producing more saliva than usual is common during the first few months of your pregnancy. Just like nausea and morning sickness, excessive salivation is also a common occurrence in the first trimester of pregnancy. Like morning sickness, this occurs due to extreme fluctuation in hormone levels.

Although it’s not nearly as unpleasant as morning sickness, excessive salivation during pregnancy can be quite annoying. Especially if you have to wake up at night because you’ve been drooling too much, or when you don’t feel like swallowing the excess saliva as it makes you more nauseous.

Ptyalism usually occurs in the first 12-14 weeks of the pregnancy, alongside morning sickness. In some cases, it may even stay for 20 weeks or stop after 12 weeks and then recur in the final trimester. This is because hormone fluctuations become extreme during the third trimester too.

Is it a concern if you have excessive saliva during pregnancy?

There’s no evidence to support that producing more saliva during pregnancy is a cause of concern or leads to any complications. However, excessive salivation during pregnancy may affect the quality of your life. Besides spitting the excess saliva repeatedly, your salivary glands may swell and affect your sleep. It can also be embarrassing to spit or swallow more saliva constantly. If you think excess saliva during pregnancy is interfering with your daily life, you should consult your doctor.

How to prevent excess saliva during pregnancy?

Here are some tips you can follow to control the production of saliva during pregnancy:

• Start with the basics like sucking on an ice cube or sucking a lemon(nimbu).

• You can place a few drops of lemon juice or lime essential oils on a tissue and keep sniffing it intermittently.

• Many women find that brushing their teeth intermittently with minty toothpaste helps relieve the salivation or at least make it more manageable. You can also use a mint mouthwash; do make sure that it’s safe to take during pregnancy.

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• Get alternative treatments like homoeopathy. A homoeopath will generally prescribe ‘Mercurius Solubilis' or 'Veratrum Album' to help with the symptom.

• Chiropractors and reflexologists may be able to help in this scenario as well.

• Chewing mint leaves, breath mints or minty gum is another easy option. You should also try to include as much mint in your diet as possible- in salads, chutneys, curd, smoothies and so on.

• Drinking more water helps too as salivation is often a response to dehydration.

• Remedies like eating small, regular meals and eating plain cracker biscuits that help for morning sickness help with ptyalism too.

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• If the problem is so severe that it prevents you from sleeping, then see a doctor as medical remedies are available too.

At the end of the day, just remember that producing more saliva during pregnancy is just like other symptoms of morning sickness; while unpleasant it is a normal part of a healthy pregnancy. It doesn’t harm your baby or the pregnancy in any way.