The Face Hole Series
Magical Properties of Saliva
Saliva can heal, help us taste, and even make us feel sexier
Spit, spittle, dribble, drool, slaver, slobber, sputum.
That may sound like a spell from Harry Potter, but it’s just a list of names used to describe saliva. From translation of the Latin word for spittle, saliva has roots in the Proto-Italic “sal-iwo, ” which means “dirty yellow” and “sal-” which means “dirty gray.” Gross, I know, but it says a lot about the state of oral hygiene in the 1400s.
Even though the spit we know and love today is of the colorless variety, that doesn’t mean it’s sterile. Each one of our mouths hosts anywhere from 20 to 30 species of seven hundred possible microbes. The food we eat is also covered in bacteria, which adds to the mix. At any given moment, the average person’s piehole is home to billions of bacteria living in a harmonious biofilm (more if you haven’t brushed your teeth for a few days.) This microbiome is possible because saliva is made of 99% water and makes the environment moist and balmy.
On an average day, we make around 1 to 2 liters of saliva or a bottle of wine’s worth. But that doesn’t mean drinking your own saliva is hydrating. Most saliva is recycled from swallowing. The amount of saliva produced at any given…
