Saliva rarely crosses your mind when thinking about or planning your dental health.

However, did you know it plays a critical role in oral and overall body health?

The salivary gland in the oral cavity produces and secretes saliva, also known as spit, a translucent liquid of 98% water. The fluid is vital for good digestion and a healthy body and mouth. It also enables food swallowing, smooths speech, and neutralizes harmful acids. Therefore, when you experience unbalanced or abnormal salivation or flow issues, you should talk to a skilled dentist for analysis and treatment.

Saliva Definition

Saliva, or spit, is an extracellular fluid created and secreted by the salivary gland. The transparent liquid comprises water, mucus, enzymes, proteins, electrolytes, and nitrogen compounds that help maintain a healthy environment in the oral cavity.

Your mouth has six salivary glands, and the three major ones that are the origin of saliva are:

  • Parotid glands found inside the cheeks.
  • Submandibular glands located near the jawbone.
  • Sublingual glands located underneath the tongue.

Once these glands produce the saliva, tiny tubes known as salivary ducks move it to the mouth. The tubes release saliva in small amounts to keep the mouth moist. The glands are more active when eating or smelling food, increasing the spit in the oral cavity. Salivation is when your salivary glands produce saliva because of anxiety, chewing, sucking, or nervousness.

When planning your dental health or experiencing unbalanced salivation, you should talk to your dentist about the salivation rate to find a solution.

Advantages of Saliva

Saliva is a vital element for a healthy body. Its unique structure is essential for the daily activities of your mouth. The expected benefits of the fluid are:

Clears or Removes Food Debris

Saliva removes or clears away food debris that builds up in the mouth after eating. When you have normal saliva secretion in the oral fissure, waste material is less likely to accumulate around the teeth or oral cavity. Also, your food and beverages sometimes contain viruses, bacteria, and yeast. If these are left to build up in the oral cavity, they result in severe oral problems. Luckily, saliva removes these bacteria and viruses, preventing oral infections.

Saliva Helps in Periodontal and Oral Disease Prevention

Most of your daily meals contain harmful acids capable of eroding the enamel. Luckily, the saliva in your mouth neutralizes the acids, making them non-toxic. When sugars and waste materials remain in the oral cavity, they create acidic content that causes dental problems like dental caries and soft tissue disease. Nevertheless, with a regular stream of saliva, these waste materials are removed from the oral cavity, preventing severe oral issues.

For example, when you eat bread, which is rich in carbohydrates, it hinders the normal movement of saliva in the oral cavity. The spit has the amylase enzyme that converts the starch and carbohydrates that interfere with the smooth flow into sugar for digestion, restoring and maintaining standard production, discharge, and flow.

Similarly, saliva protects your esophagus from heartburn and erosion by harmful acids. It sticks to the esophagus when you are swallowing, creating a protective layer that shields you from the effects of irritating foods and beverages.

Again, saliva contains minerals like calcium, fluoride, and phosphorus, which are crucial in enhancing your tooth enamel's strength, health, and resistance to cavities.

Saliva Plays An Important Role in Digestion

Saliva is the start of the digestion process. Immediately after you smell food; the salivary glands start the production and secretion of saliva. It lubricates food to create a slippery substance that is quick to swallow. The amylase enzyme then breaks down the carbohydrates, starch, and maltose into tiny molecules that are easy to assimilate or digest. Chewing and digesting would not be useful in the absence of saliva or when there is reduced saliva production. You are likely to have chewing and digestion problems when you have low saliva secretion. You should contact your dentist immediately after you notice the dry mouth for a diagnosis and treatment.

Saliva Lubricates Your Oral Cavity

Saliva creates a shield in your oral cavity between the mucosa and any food or beverage you take. It acts as a seromucous layer critical in the lubrication of the mouth. By constantly lubricating the mouth, saliva protects the soft tissue, tongue, cheeks, palate, and floor of the mouth from irritation.

Saliva lubrication helps prevent dental issues like:

  • Dry mouth.
  • Carcinogens caused by smoking or breathing in harmful chemicals.
  • Proteolytic and hydrolytic enzymes that eat away the enamel and cause tooth decay.

Again, oral mucosa lubrication by the saliva enables you to speak.

Saliva Promotes the Creation of Healthy Plaque Biofilm

Plaque buildup in the mouth is commonly associated with oral infections, gum disease, and cavities. Nevertheless, a plaque biofilm can be beneficial to your mouth. Saliva has immune protection that promotes healthy plaque film development and movement.

When you brush and floss your teeth to remove food debris, the enamel is covered with a pellicle, a protein that collects free-floating bacteria and builds them into big crumbs for quick discarding when you gulp your spit. Therefore, when the healthy calculus biofilm grows, saliva helps remove it from the mouth.

The enamel coating, the pellicle, shields the teeth from demineralization, typically caused by harmful oral cavity acids that prevent or reverse tooth decay.

Saliva Secures and Stabilizes Dentures

If you wear dentures, you want them to be secure and stable. When you produce sufficient saliva, the fluid establishes pressure between the soft tissue and the denture, retaining and stabilizing the restoration. Nevertheless, saliva production reduces as you age, and the suction that retains and stabilizes the dentures could be lost. You will start experiencing irritation and abrasions in the soft tissue because of dentures and dry mouth movement. If you experience these problems, talk to your dentist to remedy the situation. An experienced dentist can prescribe supplements to boost salivation and keep the mouth lubricated to prevent abrasions and irritation due to unstable dentures.

Saliva Supports Healing

In most cultures, you will see people apply saliva to their wounds. They do this because of the spit’s healing and sanitizing agents. Saliva comprises vascular endothelial and epidermal growth elements that help heal and regenerate the soft tissue. This explains why your gums heal quickly whenever you bite them.

Saliva Helps Identify systemic Health Problems

Saliva is a critical health diagnostic tool that has been tested and proven by many medical experts and scientists. The proteins and DNA in the saliva help identify the existence or likelihood of developing particular health conditions.

Saliva is used to screen for or predict:

  • Viruses like HIV.
  • Oral cancer.
  • Allergies.
  • Diabetes.
  • Head and neck cancer.
  • Acne.

The merits of utilizing saliva as an analytical tool are:

  • Taking a saliva sample for testing is pain-free and non-detrimental.
  • Patients prefer saliva as an indicative tool to stool or blood.
  • The utilization of saliva for identifying medical problems prevents the spread of infections.
  • Collecting a saliva sample does not involve using special equipment or skills that enable performing a diagnosis in the comfort of your home if you cannot see a dentist for whatever reason.

Causes and Remedies for Unbalanced Saliva

Maintaining health and high-level production is essential after understanding saliva's benefits for oral and overall health. Whenever you notice low or excessive salivation, you must know you have a problem and immediately speak to a dental expert. The common causes and remedies for unbalanced salivation are:

  1. Xerostomia or Dry Mouth

Keeping healthy gingiva tissue, teeth, oral cavity, and overall body health requires sufficient saliva production. When you produce insufficient saliva, you are deemed to suffer from Xerostomia, otherwise called dry mouth. Xerostomia is not an illness but a sign of an underlying health condition that causes low saliva production. However, the situation does not necessarily indicate an underlying condition in senior citizens, as saliva production reduces as you age.

Insufficient saliva makes you more susceptible to periodontal disease and tooth decay because your oral cavity is prone to viruses, yeast, and bacteria. Swallowing and digestion become significant problems. Also, you develop inflamed soft tissue and a swollen tongue.

If you notice less saliva, contact a dentist immediately to schedule a meeting. The common causes of low saliva are:

  • Chronic conditions like diabetes, stress, or HIV/AIDS.
  • Dehydration.
  • Mouth breathing.
  • Smoking.
  • Cancer treatments.
  • Prescription and non-prescription medications like antidepressants and anti-anxiety.
  • Neck and head injuries.
  • Anxiety and depression.
  • High blood pressure.
  • Allergies.

Based on the underlying condition, your dentist can recommend various treatments for dry mouth. These treatments are:

  • Dehydration reduces saliva production, so your dental expert will advise hydration.
  • Talk to your primary doctor to see if the medication you are using could be causing the dry mouth.
  • Shunning tobacco smoking.
  • Shunning food with excessive salt, spices, or acids.
  • Avoiding excessive alcohol consumption as it causes dehydration.
  • Shunning foods that are hard to chew.
  • Rinsing your mouth at least four times daily with baking soda will reduce or deter bacterial acids that cause dental cavities.
  • Rinsing or spraying the mouth with artificial saliva to keep it moist.
  • Maintaining healthy oral hygiene by cleaning and flossing teeth as recommended by your dentist.
  • Visiting the dentist regularly for routine examinations and cleaning.
  • Steering clear of acidic juices like orange juice.

With the critical role saliva plays in your overall health, you should identify problems causing low saliva and arrest them before they cause major oral issues.

  1. Hypersalivation

Also called excessive spit in the oral cavity, hypersalivation is the decreased salivary rem in the mouth. Your body removes excessive saliva through swallowing. However, unlike low saliva, this should not scare you. It is normal. Nevertheless, it could be due to tonsils or overactive salivary glands. Eating spicy or acidic foods can also cause hypersalivation.

When you notice excessive saliva that sometimes causes drooling, it is time to talk to your dentist to find the source of the problem. Hypersalivation is common among individuals with weak mouth and face muscles, as they cannot close their mouths. Other causes of the condition are:

  • Tonsils.
  • Excessive consumption of starch.
  • Poisoning.
  • Cerebral palsy.
  • Enlarged tongue.
  • Rabies.
  • Intellectual disability.
  • Broken or dislocated jaw.
  • Pregnancy.
  • Specific medication.
  • Pancreatitis.

Hypersalivation has no definite treatment. To arrest the problem, your dentist will recommend treatment of the underlying health issue or lifestyle changes.

One treatment option is prescribing drugs like glycopyrrolate and scopolamine to lessen the saliva. These medications inhibit the salivation rate, reducing saliva buildup. However, the medicines can cause side effects like frequent urination, blurry vision, lack of sleep, a quick heartbeat, and dizziness.

Another treatment is a Botox injection into the salivary glands. These shots inhibit the chemicals that activate the glands to create and secrete more saliva. The treatment is safe but only lasts for a month. You must schedule appointments with the dental expert for future shots.

Lastly, your dentist can recommend surgery to treat severe hypersalivation. However, surgery is recommended if all other treatments have been unsuccessful. Even when you have an underlying illness, surgery could be the only solution to the excessive saliva. The procedure involves rerouting the salivary duct or extracting the gland.

After the surgery, your dental expert will recommend frequently brushing and rinsing the teeth using alcohol products for a quick drying effect, which helps reduce the amount of saliva in the oral fissure.

Saliva offers many health benefits that you should not overlook. Therefore, you should maintain a healthy spit by:

  • Staying hydrated.
  • Encouraging nasal breathing instead of mouth breathing by treating household and seasonal allergies.
  • Observing proper oral hygiene.

When you observe unbalanced salivation, like dry mouth or hypersalivation, you should talk to your dentist immediately for a diagnosis to avoid further oral and body health problems.

Find a Skilled Advanced Dentistry Near Me

You should maintain healthy saliva if you are looking for a healthy oral cavity, gums, and teeth. Unbalanced saliva causes many problems, including dental conditions requiring the treatment of an experienced dentist. At Northridge Advanced Dentistry, we know the relationship between your mouth and overall body health. So, our dentists will approach your problem with the seriousness it deserves, regardless of its severity. Call us today at 818-701-3010 to discuss your unbalanced salivation with our dentist.