SALIVA IS SUCH an ordinary thing that you probably haven\u2019t given it much thought, but it\u2019s actually as important to the healthy function of our mouths as oil is to a working car engine. Saliva is an essential component of our ability to eat, taste our favorite foods, and speak, it\u2019s crucial to a healthy immune system, and it\u2019s our first line of defense against many oral health problems.<\/p>\n
Saliva Production And Stages
\nIn a healthy mouth, saliva is produced continuously by the salivary glands, which are located under our tongues and in our cheeks. These glands produce between two and six cups of saliva every day! Saliva is 98-99 percent water, and the rest consists of proteins, digestive enzymes, antimicrobial factors, and electrolytes.<\/p>\n
Depending on where food is in the digestive process, saliva goes through a few different stages: cephalic, buccal, oesophageal, gastric, and intestinal. When you smell something delicious and your mouth waters, that\u2019s the cephalic stage! Actually eating moves it to the buccal stage, which helps us swallow food. The oesophageal stage helps move swallowed food down the esophagus.<\/p>\n
The last two stages are less pleasant, but still important. If you\u2019re about to throw up, your salivary glands work overtime in the gastric stage so that the stomach acid won\u2019t do as much damage when it comes up and out with the partially digested food. The intestinal stage is similar, activating when the body doesn\u2019t agree with food that reaches the upper intestine.<\/p>\n
Saliva And Oral Health
\nThere are many reasons we have saliva, but the most important role it plays for your teeth is keeping your mouth\u2019s pH balancedand flushing away remnants of food to keep everything clean. Eating food tends to make our mouths more acidic, and even though the enamel on our teeth is the hardest substance in our bodies, it only takes a pH of 5.5 to start dissolving it. Many of the foods we eat are far more acidic than that, which makes saliva critical in protecting our teeth.<\/p>\n
The antimicrobial factors in saliva also fight bacteria, protecting us against gum disease and bad breath. Growth factors in saliva are why injuries in your mouth (like a burned tongue or a bitten cheek) heal faster than injuries elsewhere on the body. And those are just the benefits to oral health, but saliva does much more.<\/p>\n