 Hi everybody, Dr. O here. In this video we're going to talk about the salivary glands and saliva. So here you see a picture that shows the three main salivary glands. See they're paired. So there's two parotid glands, two submanibular glands and two sublingual glands. We're going to dive in deep here. But just so you understand, there are about 800 to 1,000 other submucosal glands inside of your oral cavity. There are palatal glands, there are lingual glands on the tongue, there are buccal glands in the cheek. So the entire oral cavity is full of glands to make sure that the entire mouth is always lubricated. But these would be the key ones we're going to talk about. The only exception that's not here is I would make sure you remember that there are lingual glands there in the tongue. And they're the ones that secrete lingual lipase, the first digestive enzyme that starts the breakdown of lipids and fats. As far as saliva, so here's a little closer view. We make about one to one and a half liters of saliva a day. It's almost all water. It's like 98 to 99 and a half percent water. What's in this, there's lots of things in saliva and we'll just cover some of them here. But probably the key thing we talk about the most is salivary amylase. So amylose is a carbohydrate. So salivary amylases are digestive enzymes that begin the breakdown of carbohydrates. Your saliva also is going to have buffers in it like bicarbonate and phosphate ions. That's going to keep the pH near 7, high 6 is 6, 8 somewhere in that ballpark. And that seems to help control the growth of some microbes. Speaking of microbes, your saliva will also have a secretory IgA antibodies that hopefully will keep a lot of pathogens before stopping them before they can get into your body. And your saliva also has Lysozyme. Lysozyme is an antimicrobial compound, especially good. It breaks down cell walls. So it's especially good at stopping gram positive bacteria like the strep and staff, these kind of organisms. So as you can see, there's a whole lot of stuff going on in your saliva. And that doesn't even count for the fact that the water is used and mucus is used to lubricate your food and make sure you can swallow it without choking those kind of things. So saliva is important, probably more important than you give a credit for. Well, let's talk about the glands here. So from a size standpoint, the parotid salivary gland is the biggest one, but it isn't the one that actually produces the most saliva. So if you want to know the percentages, the parotid glands produce about 25% of your saliva. The submandibular salivary glands produce 70% and the sublingual salivary glands produce five. So it's kind of interesting that even though the parotid gland is the largest, it does not produce the most glandular secretions. The parotid glands is the most watery though, and it's also going to have the most salivary amylase. So the parotid glands is pretty much just cirrus glands, just watery glands. The submandibular gland is going to be a mixture of watery cirrus secretions and mucus. So it's still going to have a lot of salivary amylase, but it's going to be a little thicker solution with more mucus in it. And the sublingual salivary glands, they're just mucus glands, so they're going to produce a lot of mucus. So as you can see, your saliva is a combination of this watery cirrus fluid plus a more thick, cloudy mucus. And that can change based on lots of factors, like if you're under stress, your sympathetic nervous system doesn't stop the production of saliva. You might wonder why your mouth gets dry if you're going to give a speech or something, but it actually is producing more of the thick, mucus-y saliva. So you're always producing saliva. The question is how watery or mucusy it is. All right, I think that's all the key information you need to know about the salivary glands and saliva. So I hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.