WHAT IS SALIVA?

WHAT IS SALIVA?

Humans can produce an incredible two liters (half a gallon) of saliva each day. It is made up of 99.5 per cent water, so how is it able to perform so many important functions in our mouths? The answer lies in the remaining 0.5per cent, which contains a host of enzymes, proteins, minerals and bacterial compounds.

These ingredients help to digest food and maintain oral hygiene. As soon as food enters the mouth, saliva’s enzymes start to break it down into its simpler components, while also providing lubrication to enable even the driest snack to slide easily down the throat. Saliva is also important in oral health, as it helps to protect teeth from decay and also controls bacterial levels in the mouth to reduce the risk of infection.

Without sufficient saliva, tongue and lip movements are not as smooth, which, in extreme cases, can make it very difficult to speak. With advanced scientific techniques and research, an individual’s saliva can reveal a great deal of information. New studies have shown that a saliva test can be used to find out whether a person is at risk of a heart attack, as it contains C-reactive protein (CRP).

This can be an indicator of heart disease when found at elevated levels in the blood. A saliva test is much less intrusive than a blood test and gives doctors a rough estimate of the health of a patient’s heart .What’ s more, saliva contains your entire genetic blueprint. Even tiny amounts, equivalent to less than half a teardrop, can provide a workable DNA sample that can be frozen and the wed multiple times without breaking down.

 

 

Ø Parotid gland

The parotid glands are the largest salivary glands. They are made up of serous cells which produce thin, watery saliva.

Ø Parotid duct

The parotid duct allows saliva to move easily from the parotid gland to the mouth.

Ø Sublingual gland

Composed primarily of mucous cells, these glands secrete only a small amount of saliva, accounting for about five per cent.

Ø Submandibular gland

These glands produce roughly 70 per cent of your saliva. They are composed of both serous and mucous cells.

Ø Submandibular duct

Also known as the Wharton duct, this drains saliva from both the submandibular and sublingual glands.

Can Saliva Speed Up Healing?

Many animals do it instinctively, but it turns out that there is a benefit to humans licking their wounds. A study found that there is a compound in human saliva, namely histatin, which can speed up the healing process. Scientists conducted an experiment using epithelial cells from a volunteer’s inner cheek, creating a wound in the cells so that the healing process could be monitored.

They created two dishes of cells, one that was treated with saliva and one that was left open. The scientists were astounded when after 16 hours the saliva-treated wound was almost completely closed, yet the untreated wound was still open. This demonstrated that saliva does aid the healing of at least oral wounds, something that has been suspected but unproven until this study.