Fun Facts

Salivary Glands

There are three sets of major salivary glands—the sublingual, submandibular, and parotid— whose sole job is producing saliva, which helps you swallow, aids indigestion, and protects your teeth from harmful bacteria. The salivary glands are located on either side of your tongue in the lower jaw, just in front of your ears, producing between and one and two liters of saliva daily. A collected year’s amount would fill a bathtub. Saliva is 99% water with proteins, enzymes, and mucus making up the rest. Without saliva you would not taste food, for the molecules in food must dissolve before the taste buds react. Whenever you chew you stimulate the production of salivab in preparation for the breakdown of food. Sometimes just thinking of certain foods can stimulate the salivary glands to produce, thus you have watering of the mouth in anticipation of the coming food.

Before vomiting the salivary glands work overtime to protect the esophagus, mouth, and teeth, for the stomach contents are highly acidic and extremely harmful, so the saliva is trying to neutralize the stomach acid.

The enzyme Amylase, also known as ptyalin, located in saliva begins the breakdown or digestion of starch in the mouth, breaking the starch down to sugars like glucose and maltose. There are between 800-1000 minor salivary glands located within the oral cavity in the soft, hard palate floor of the mouth and between muscle fibers of the tongue. Their secretion is mainly mucous which helps coat the oral cavity with saliva. Cancer treatments of radiation therapy may impair salivary flow, but chemotherapy may only cause temporary impairment (Cleveland Clinic). 

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