All About Your Mouth

Your lips are the guardians of your mouth

Our Mouth is Sensitive
Do you ever think of your mouth?

Lips
Your lips are the surounding outer edges of skin. They guard your mouth. They open and close to let things in your mouth. Your mouth is the cavity within.

Our Teeth
We think of our teeth, especially if they ache. We like white, bright teeth.
To keep our teeth white and bright and shiny we must clean them often.

When I was growing up, a school friend had GREEN teeth! You don't believe me? Well, she did. She refused to clean her teeth and it looked like algae growing on them. They did not look very pleasant.

The Tongue
The tongue is also part of the mouth. We use it when we speak to help us form sounds and we use it when we eat and drink to help move the food around in our mouth. The tongue experiences heat and cold from our food. It is our sensory taste centre. It tastes sweet and sour, spicy and sweet. Naturopaths look at the state of the tongue to give them an idea of what is going on in the body.

Sometimes after a hard night out our tongue may feel furry. It can feel dry or sore, cracked or blistered. If our tongue is sore it is difficult to eat and sometimes to speak.

Saliva
Our mouth can be dry or drooling with saliva. When we are nervous, for example before a public speaking engagement, our mouth can go dry. If we smell our favourite food then our mouth can be filled with saliva. Saliva helps us to soften our food and begins the digestion process.

Mouth Ulcers
When we are run down from exhaustion, stress or over work we can get little blisters or mouth ulcers in our mouth on the inside of the cheeks and the tongue. This is a warning sign to look after ourselves.

Gum Disease
Our gums are also a part of our mouth. We can get plaque - tough calcification around the base of our teeth. When this builds up bacteria starts to grow around our teeth and goes into our gums. Our gums are important because they are the sensitive skin that support our teeth and hold them to our jaw. If gingivitis is not treated it can lead to periodonitis which is an even more serious disease.

Stay tuned for more info about our mouth and what we can do to keep it healthy.

Cheers

(Thanks to my husband, Fred, for his beautiful reduction woodblock print to display)

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