Since my heart scare in 2024, I’ve been to a lot of health and nutrition talks, and something that keeps coming up, surprisingly, is the mouth. From how crunchy veg helps clean your teeth to how certain nuts fight mouth bacteria, it’s clear that mouth health plays a bigger role in overall health than I ever realised.
But it’s not just the health tips that caught my attention, it’s the strange and fascinating facts that stuck with me. So I decided to pull together a list of the ones that surprised me most. You might just learn something about your mouth that’s worth sharing.
1. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body
This one surprised me. A nutritionist said that tooth enamel, yes, the thin layer on the outside of your teeth, is harder than bone. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought, no way is it tougher than the femur (your thigh bone). But I looked it up later, and they were right. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body. It’s there to protect your teeth from damage and decay.
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2. Your mouth is home to more bacteria than there are people on Earth
When I first heard this, I thought the nutritionist had completely lost the plot. More bacteria in my mouth than people on the planet? No chance. But again, I was wrong. Your mouth can hold 50 to 100 billion bacteria each day, and over 700 different types are living in there. For context, there are around 8 billion people on Earth. It sounds gross, but most of these bacteria help keep your mouth healthy. Still, it’s a good reminder of why brushing and flossing matter.
3. Saliva is essential for tasting food
If you don’t have saliva, you can’t taste your food. That’s because the chemicals in food need to dissolve in saliva before your taste buds can pick them up. Think about a time you had a really dry mouth and tried to eat something. The food just sticks to your tongue, and there’s barely any flavor, just texture. Saliva doesn’t just help you chew and swallow, it’s what makes food taste like food.
4. The average person produces over 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime
Alright, this one’s back to being kind of gross, but also amazing. Over your lifetime, your body makes more than 10,000 gallons of saliva. That’s enough to fill more than 150 bathtubs. Saliva does a lot more than help you taste food. It washes away tiny bits of food, helps fight off bad bacteria, and even balances acids in your mouth. It might sound weird, especially when you think about all the bacteria in there, but most of it is the good kind that helps keep your mouth healthy.
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5. Your tongue is covered in thousands of taste buds that renew themselves
This one comes up a lot at health talks, your tongue is home to around 2,000 to 4,000 taste buds. That might not sound too exciting, but here’s the fun bit: those taste buds renew themselves about every 10 days. That’s right, your mouth is constantly refreshing itself. As you get older, the process slows down a bit, but it’s still happening.
6. Right-handed people chew on the right, left-handed people on the left
At one of the health talks I went to, the nutritionist handed out pieces of fruit and asked everyone to take a bite. Then they asked who was right-handed, and when hands went up, they shared this interesting fact: studies show people often chew on the same side as their dominant hand. So right-handed people tend to chew more on the right, and left-handed people more on the left. It’s not a strict rule, but a fun little detail you can try for yourself next time you are with people at lunch.
7. Smiling boosts your immune system
Here’s another one I thought had to be nonsense: smiling helps your immune system. But I was wrong (again). When you smile, your brain releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins. These help lower stress, and less stress means your immune system can do its job better. Some studies even show that smiling can help your body make more white blood cells, the ones that fight off colds, flu, and other bugs.
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8. Most adults have some form of gum disease
Alright, we’re back to the slightly gross side of mouth facts, but this one’s also pretty serious. I came across it while double-checking some of the wilder claims I’d heard from nutritionists. Did you know that in 2013, around 65 million adults in the U.S. had some form of gum disease? That’s a huge number. And it’s not just about your teeth; gum disease, if left untreated, can lead to tooth loss and even affect your overall health. When people talk about the mouth being connected to the rest of the body, this is one of the clearest examples.
9. Cavities are one of the most common diseases worldwide
This fact didn’t come straight from a nutritionist, but from digging deeper after one of their talks. I was reading about gum disease and found this: tooth decay, just your everyday cavities, was the most common noncommunicable disease in the world. It affects people of all ages, from kids to adults, and often gets brushed off as no big deal. But untreated, it can lead to serious pain, infections, and other health problems.
10. No two people have the same set of teeth or tongue print
This one makes a lot of sense and is pretty interesting; everyone’s mouth is different. Just like fingerprints, your teeth and even your tongue have unique patterns that no one else has. That’s why dental records are often used to help identify people. Your bite, the shape of your teeth, and even the lines on your tongue are all one of a kind. It’s pretty wild to think your mouth is that unique, but it is.
From taste to toothprints, the mouth is full of surprising facts that show just how important and fascinating this small part of the body is.