Acid reflux feels like a burning sensation in your chest, starting behind the breastbone and sometimes rising into your throat. Most people describe it as heartburn, but reflux can also show up as a sour taste in your mouth, a feeling of food stuck in your throat, or a persistent cough with no obvious cause. The sensation typically starts after eating and can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
The Burning Chest Sensation
The most recognizable symptom is a burning pain in the center of your chest, just behind the breastbone. It usually appears after a meal, and it gets worse when you lie down or bend over. That’s because gravity is no longer helping keep stomach acid where it belongs. Depending on the size and type of meal, your stomach can take two to five hours to finish digesting, and the burning can come and go throughout that window.
The pain can range from a mild warmth to an intense burn that spreads upward toward your neck. Some people feel it more in the upper abdomen, which can make it hard to tell whether the discomfort is coming from the stomach or the chest. This overlap with heart-related chest pain is one reason reflux gets so much attention: both can produce a burning or pressure-like feeling in the same general area.
Regurgitation and Sour Taste
Beyond the burn, many people experience a sensation of something rising in the throat. Stomach acid or partially digested food flows backward into the esophagus and sometimes reaches the back of the mouth, leaving a sour or bitter taste. This is regurgitation, and it’s one of the two hallmark symptoms of reflux alongside heartburn.
A related but less common symptom is called water brash. Your salivary glands suddenly produce a flood of extra saliva at the same time acid rises into the throat. The mix of saliva and stomach acid creates an unpleasant, sour-tasting liquid that pools in the back of your mouth. Unlike regurgitation, water brash doesn’t bring food back up. It feels more like liquid is stuck in the back of your throat, and it can catch you off guard because the sudden rush of saliva is the body’s attempt to neutralize the acid.
Throat and Voice Symptoms
Not everyone with reflux feels the classic chest burn. When stomach acid reaches the upper throat and voice box, it causes a set of symptoms that can seem completely unrelated to digestion. This is sometimes called silent reflux, or laryngopharyngeal reflux, because heartburn is often absent.
The most common signs include hoarseness or a lowered voice, a persistent feeling of something stuck in your throat, chronic throat clearing, and a cough that doesn’t go away. Some people develop a chronic sore throat, excessive mucus production, or difficulty swallowing. Among people with chronic hoarseness, roughly half have this form of reflux as the underlying cause. New or worsening asthma and frequent upper respiratory infections can also be connected, which is why silent reflux often goes undiagnosed for months or years.
Difficulty Swallowing
Over time, repeated exposure to stomach acid can irritate and scar the lining of the esophagus. That scar tissue narrows the tube, a condition called a stricture. When this happens, you may feel like food is getting stuck on the way down, particularly solid foods like bread or meat. The sensation is distinct from a lump in the throat. It feels like something is physically catching partway through a swallow, and it can be uncomfortable or even painful.
This kind of swallowing difficulty is a sign that reflux has been going on long enough to cause structural changes. It doesn’t happen overnight. If swallowing has become noticeably harder or painful, that’s a signal the condition has progressed beyond occasional heartburn.
Effects on Your Teeth and Mouth
One of the less obvious signs of chronic reflux is damage to tooth enamel. Stomach acid that repeatedly reaches the mouth erodes the hard outer layer of your teeth over time. The erosion typically starts on the inner surfaces of the upper front teeth, since those are closest to where acid enters the mouth. If reflux continues, it spreads to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth and eventually affects the lower teeth as well.
You might notice your teeth developing a yellowish tint as the enamel thins and the darker layer underneath becomes visible. Teeth can become overly sensitive to temperature, sweetness, and pressure. Some people also develop redness on the soft palate and uvula. These changes happen gradually, so they’re easy to miss unless your dentist points them out.
When Reflux Happens and How Long It Lasts
A single episode of heartburn can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Meals that are large, fatty, spicy, or acidic tend to trigger longer and more intense episodes. Eating close to bedtime is a common trigger because lying flat removes the gravitational advantage that helps keep acid in the stomach. Many people find that nighttime reflux is worse than daytime reflux for this reason, and it can disrupt sleep.
Occasional reflux is extremely common and doesn’t necessarily point to a larger problem. The clinical threshold for gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is heartburn occurring two or more days per week. At that frequency, the repeated acid exposure starts to carry risks like esophageal irritation, strictures, and the throat and dental symptoms described above. Weekly heartburn is the general benchmark where occasional discomfort crosses into something worth investigating further.
Reflux Chest Pain vs. Heart Attack
Because reflux produces a burning or pressure sensation in the chest, people often worry they’re having a heart attack. There are a few practical differences. Reflux pain is typically burning in quality, worsens after meals or when lying down, and often improves if you sit upright or take an antacid. Heart-related chest pain is more likely to feel like tightness, squeezing, or heavy pressure, and it may radiate to the jaw, arm, or back. It can also come with shortness of breath, sweating, or lightheadedness.
These distinctions are useful guidelines, but they aren’t foolproof. The two conditions can overlap in how they feel, and heart attacks don’t always present with textbook symptoms. If chest pain is new, severe, or accompanied by shortness of breath or dizziness, treat it as a potential cardiac event first.