A Dog’s Saliva Is Surprisingly Amazing

1 Overview

Killing Bacteria

Compared with human saliva, dog saliva kills bacteria better.

Human saliva pH is 6.5-7; dog saliva 7.5-8. A small gap, a big effect.

High pH starves bacteria; weak alkalinity buffers their acid. So if your dog has mouth disease, reflect on care.

Aiding Digestion

Human saliva aids digestion, but dog saliva doesn’t – a dog’s gut is strong enough. Strictly, saliva just helps food slide down, not digest.

Preventing Cavities

Right – dog saliva prevents cavities; like many carnivores’ saliva it’s weakly alkaline (pH 7.5-8).

So dogs rarely get cavities; alkalinity buffers the acid that drives decay.

Killing Bacteria

Wait, didn’t we say this at the top?

Dogs lick wounds instinctively. We know not to allow it, yet saliva does kill germs and speed healing.

If it kills and heals, why worse? Researchers think dog saliva’s ‘low-grade’ antimicrobials can’t beat modern ‘high-grade’ germs – the magic fades.