What are salivary glands?

It’s just the face and mouth you see, but just under the skin, you will find facial veins, artery to carry blood, facial nerves, muscles and yes let’s not forget our salivary glands.

Salivary glands are the organs that produce saliva into the mouth. You may want to ask ‘what is saliva?’ saliva is what makes your mouth moisturized and lubricated. Saliva contains mucus or serous or combination of both. Mucus is slimy and sticky and serous is watery and contain protein, which has enzyme to help with the digestion of our foods. Salivary glands consist of fat tissues and cells that release the saliva with the help of ducts.

There are three major salivary glands. Parotid gland is the largest and drains saliva into the mouth near your upper second molar tooth. It uses Stensen’s duct to deliver saliva in your oral cavity. Parotid gland is located between your ear and down to the upper part of your lower jaw. Two other major glands are submandibular gland and sublingual gland. Submandibular is located in your lower jaw deep in the muscles of your mandibular (lower jaw). It uses Wharton’s duct to drain saliva into your mouth in front part of the mouth’s floor below your tongue. Sublingual is in your floor of the mouth below the membrane covering the floor of the mouth. Sublingual gland has small series of ducts that moisturize your mouth.