How Much Saliva Do You Make Each Day

Only a few of us has even thought about how much saliva we actually make in one day. In this article we are going to be discussing how much saliva can one person make each passing day.

Producing Saliva
The average person makes up approximately 0.5 milliliters of saliva per minute. That really don’t sound like a lot, but multiply 0.5 milliliters a minute by 24 hours in a day and that equals to 720 milliliters. That’s not even enough to fill up a carton of milk, but let’s keep adding shall we.

Since the average person makes up to 720 milliliters of saliva a day, multiply that by 360 days in a year and that equals 262.8 liters a year, let’s keep going. The average life span of a human is 80 years, so we can assume that you will most likely produce about 21,024 liters of spit in your lifetime. That’s like filling up a small swimming pool of saliva.

How many salivary glands do we actually have, you may wonder after hearing that in your total life span you can fill up a swimming pool with your saliva. Our glands are located on the inside of each cheek, at the bottom of your mouth, and also under your jaw at the front of your mouth. All those glands produce about 2-4 pints of saliva each day.

What Causes Us to Produce Saliva
There are a lot of things out there that can make us produce saliva. Just the mere thought of something delicious to eat or the smell of cookies in the air is enough to make our mouth water, and this is a really good thing. The types of food we eat and just the smell will produce saliva.

Saliva is really good for your teeth and keeps your mouth moist and comfortable. It helps you chew, taste, and swallow and remove the leftover food particles that are stuck on your teeth, and it helps fight off infections in your mouth and prevents bad breath. Saliva has proteins and minerals that protect tooth enamel and prevent tooth decay and gum disease. Just be sure to brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know by calling or stopping by the office for a visit.