Spit Happens.


Saliva Buffers Acid: We’ve discussed how levels of pH, the way we measure acidity in our bodies, can have a huge effect on oral health. Here’s a little known fact. Spit, more properly known as saliva, serves a very important role in this regard by way of its buffering effect on levels of acidity in your mouth.

How Saliva Works: In fact, saliva is one of the body’s most effective means for protecting the enamel of your teeth against damaging acid. It bathes the teeth in a supersaturated solution of calcium and phosphorus so that the enamel of the teeth is coated and remineralized following the demineralizing effects of bacterially produced acid.

More of Saliva’s Praises: Saliva serves some other very important functions as well:

1.It helps us in swallowing, by moistening the chewed up food particles, thus making them easier to swallow. 
2. It also adds enzymes to the food that help begin the process of digestion. 
3. Saliva even helps us to taste our food, by moisturizing it in a way that allows our taste buds to more easily access and recognize the different compounds present.
4. Finally, it aids in flushing bacteria from building up inside our mouths, thereby keeping the bad bacteria from collecting on our teeth and developing into larger colonies of disease producing plaque.

Conclusion: Therefore, more saliva equals a healthier mouth –  for lots of reasons.  And things that ‘dry’ your mouth, like smoking, drinking, and mouth breathing for example, are working against you for those same reasons.

Kind of makes you sort of appreciate spit now, doesn’t it?