Why You Should Care About Saliva in Your Oral health

Do you ever think about your saliva? You probably don’t. This is often something that many people don’t take that much time to think about in terms of oral hygiene, but there are many great benefits that are associated with saliva. It’s super important to help with your oral and digestive health, and there are many important functions associated with this. Commonly, people think that saliva is the unsung hero of oral and digestive health, which can be a lofty conclusion, but it is kind of true.

There are many important functions to this, and while you might ask your Kennewick dentist about it, you can learn about saliva and the amazing functions here as well. 

For starters, you should know that your body produces anywhere from 2-4 pints of saliva each day. Which means, that at the end of your life, you’ll have enough saliva to fill up two swimming pools! That’s a lot, and you might wonder why it’s that important. Well, there is more to that. It definitely is great to help keep our mouth nice and wet, but there is so much more.

For one, saliva helps with digestion. It helps with the process of breaking food down and will help us chew foods, taste them, and even swallow. In fact, if you didn’t have saliva, you wouldn’t be able to taste anything at all. Think about that, it definitely is a bit shocking if you think about it.

It also helps with keeping oral health at top shape. Spit contains antimicrobial agents that will protect the teeth and help with bacteria. It does contain other minerals such as calcium and phosphate that will help with making sure that our teeth are remineralized, which in turn will strengthen the enamel as well.

Finally, your saliva is super important in eating and drinking. You eat stuff every single day, but saliva actually helps to wash away any food and debris that’s in your mouth that will contribute to tooth decay. It will also help to neutralize the acids created by bacteria that will break down the enamel and cause various cavities. Your oral health can be greatly helped if you’re able to have a lot of saliva, so it’s definitely worth it.

But of course, there are a few that actually can be affected by not having enough saliva. You might not realize this, but there is a condition called dry mouth. This is essentially not having enough saliva there. There are some illnesses and meditations that cause this, and those that have it are actually way more prone to tooth decay and gum disease because of it. If you do have it, and even if you don’t have it, there are a few things that you can do to help increase your saliva production. Remember, it helps prevent cavities as well, so you’re only helping yourself by doing this.

The first, is to chew sugar-free gum, especially after you eat. This gets all of the particles out of there, and you’ll be able to definitely have a much healthier mouth because of this as well.

Having candy that you can suck on as well, especially sugarless candy, is another great thing to also take in. This will allow you to produce more saliva in your mouth as well.

Finally, work on drinking a lot of water, and you should definitely get at least the recommended each day, more depending on circumstances. This is often something that you don’t really think about, but drinking water can help a lot.