There are some things you know about the human body, and others you don’t want to know. This list kind of straddles the line. Is it intriguing? Yes. Is it weird? Also, yes.
We’re going to get specific about mouths. Because, hey, why not?
Here are 15 facts about your own mouth you probably didn’t know:
1. Lips are among the most sensitive parts of the body
You can measure a body’s ability to “sense” things with how many touch receptors are located in that area.
The two highest sensing areas of the body are your fingertips (makes sense) and your lips! Depending on genes, your lips can even be THE most sensitive.
2. Widsom teeth are vestigial
When something is vestigial, it means we don’t need it anymore to survive (think your appendix).
Your wisdom teeth are vestigial, but it’s likely that our ancestors needed them to chew and grind lots of tough foods. Since we aren’t gnawing on bones and raw nuts as much as we used to, we don’t have a need for them as much. That’s why sometimes they don’t even bother to grow in.
3. Your mouth can signal your body’s health
Your mouth can be a signaler for the rest of your body.
If you have poor circulation, for example, it can manifest as unhealthy gums or teeth.
Even the color of your tongue lets on a lot about your health!
4. Lips show fertility in women
This isn’t true across the board, but overall, luscious lips signal high estrogen levels in women.
Lipstick mimicks this, showing potential mates that you are “fertile.”
Most of this stuff is evolutionary science, but social science also has something to say here (though it can also be cultural).
5. Smiling can trigger hormonal changes
If you are stressed, “faking it till you make it” can actually work!
Smiling can trigger certain hormones, causing your stress levels to drop. This isn’t a cure-all, but finding more ways to smile can’t hurt, especially if you are sick!
6. The mouth has the only muscle that’s only attached at one end
If you didn’t guess yet, it’s your tongue!
Nearly all muscles contract in some way, allowing movement with the attached skeleton (think of a bicep contracting and pulling your arm in).
A tongue, however, only attaches at one end, making it super flexible.
7. You can smell your own breath with this trick
It’s really hard to smell your own breath. If you want an easy (albeit revealing) way, simply lick the back of your hand with the back of your tongue, wait a few seconds, and sniff it.
It’s gross, but it works.
8. Kissing transfers lots of bacteria
Bacteria is on and in everything, especially our mouths.
Kissing is a great way to transfer your personal collection of bacteria to someone else’s mouth. After 10 seconds of kissing about 80 million bacteria have a new home.
What’s even weirder is that if you have a regular kissing partner, your mouth biomes become similar since you share bacteria together so often.
9. There are billions of bacteria in your mouth
There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are total people on the planet. 20 billion, to be somewhat exact.
They love hanging out there and actually help you in a lot of ways!
10. Your tongue print is like a fingerprint
If you pressed your tong into a mold, you would have a tongue print unique to you! You can actually identify people solely on their tongue print.
The only problem is that the database would have to be built from scratch.
For the time being, at least, fingerprints seem to be a better option!
11. Saliva allows you to taste
Your spit is full of enzymes that start breaking down food as soon as it’s in your mouth. Without it, you couldn’t taste anything!
Try this: Hold your tongue out of your mouth for a bit and then rub some food or candy across it. You won’t be able to taste a thing if it’s dry!
12. Women are more likely to be super tasters
Yale performed a study that showed 35% of women are supertasters, as opposed to only 15% of men.
Supertasters are more sensitive to the major flavors and can perceive more nuance.
13. The dangly thing that swings in the back of your throat
Aside from what Cardi B claims it’s for, the uvula is mostly used in speech.
It can basically dump saliva into our mouths, helping with lubrication for all the moving parts of our speech mechanisms.
14. Men have longer tongues
Men, on average, have longer tongues than women do. This one isn’t too surprising especially with the data showing that men are on average larger than women are.
15. The good bacteria in your mouth prevent cavities
Good bacteria don’t like bad bacteria.
We can do our part by not giving the bad bacteria in our mouths the food they like (simple sugars) and allowing the good bacteria to expand their real estate empire.
If you made it this far, you are a true trooper. You now know more than you ever wanted (or even needed to) about your mouth.
Now you CAN’T un-know how much bacteria you just swapped with someone you just kissed. You’re welcome.
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