People often believe that dogs have cleaner mouths than people. Is this assumption valid?
Dog saliva contains many microorganisms that may pose health threats to their human counterparts, including Pasteurella multocida bacteria which have the ability to cause serious infections in people.
Geese are ideal pets if you want a pet with a cleaner mouth than cats do, since their mouths have far fewer bacteria.
Dogs
“Dogs Have Cleaner Mouths Than Humans”, is an age-old saying. To find out if it holds true in practice, our North Providence veterinarians conducted extensive research into this matter to see whether dogs really do possess cleaner teeth than people.
Though it is impossible to claim which animal has the cleanest mouth, as different animals contain different levels of bacteria in their saliva, research indicates that dogs typically contain over 600 species of germs while humans host approximately 615 types.
Bacteria are essential to many bodily processes and provide many health benefits; they help strengthen our teeth, fight infections and even help protect us against certain viruses. Unfortunately, when these beneficial microbes find their way into inappropriate places – such as our bloodstream via scratches, bites or scratches – they can create unpleasant side effects, including bad breath (halitosis).
The amount of bacteria present in an animal’s mouth depends on their diet, hygiene habits and lifestyle. Certain animals may produce more bacteria responsible for halitosis-causing halitosis than others; this could be caused by dental disease, dry mouth or illness medication or medications taken for other conditions. Bacteria also produce volatile sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide or methyl mercaptan, which have an unpleasant rotten egg smell when breathed in and can irritate our mucous membranes within our throats, noses and sinuses.
Research has shown that cats tend to have significantly fewer bacteria in their mouths compared to dogs. It is thought this might be because cats groom themselves more frequently, which might enable them to remove some harmful bacteria before it can spread further throughout their bodies.
Both cats and dogs carry bacteria such as Pasteurella multocida and Capnocytophaga that can lead to serious infection in people. The bacteria spread via direct contact between pet’s mouth/tongue and humans’ skin/mouth and bites or scratches/licks/licks from cats/dogs.
Cleanliness in a pet’s mouth depends entirely upon their owner’s hygiene practices. Dogs that regularly brush, use dental chews, and visit their veterinarian are more likely to have cleaner mouths than those who don’t participate.
Cats
Cleancat mouths can protect animals and people alike against gum disease and infections, while also helping reduce bad breath–a common health problem in both animals and people–which is also a telltale sign of other medical issues.
Many people mistakenly believe that cats have cleaner mouths than dogs, however this is not necessarily the case; both dogs and cats possess many bacteria-laden oral tissues which could potentially lead to infections for people and other animals.
Cat’s mouth bacteria is similar to what humans experience; thus it should not be more dirty than that of any human at any one time. However, cats’ mouths do contain certain other types that could contribute to gum disease; plus as predators they eat animals that could harbour bacteria that lead to infections which might make their mouths slightly dirtier than that of a dog’s.
Cleansing a pet’s teeth, gums and tongue regularly is crucial in order to avoid infections. Special dental treats, toothbrushes and other tools can assist in this effort, while regular professional cleanings should also take place for maximum oral hygiene.
There is an age-old myth that dogs have cleaner mouths than cats. To disprove it, a group of people swabbed both themselves and their pet mouths before placing the swabs into Petri dishes for one week to allow bacteria to grow on them and eventually they revealed humans had the cleanest mouths, followed by cats then dogs then chickens. While this experiment shows otherwise, this does not imply it’s safe for cats or dogs to lick your face as even small licks from them can carry bacteria which could potentially cause skin or respiratory infections so it would be best avoided except where necessary (such as feeding them or getting their attention).
Pigs
It would be wrong to conclude that pigs possess the cleanest mouths. All animals, including dogs, contain their own individual set of bacteria in their saliva which varies significantly from species to species – often by at least 80%! Therefore it can be challenging to pinpoint which animal has the cleanest mouth.
Studies suggest that bad breath (halitosis) is caused by plaque build-up and other dental conditions, with certain bacteria producing volatile sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan and dimethyl trisulfide that produce that telltale “rotten egg scent.” Over time these chemical can damage lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases as well as lead to diabetes and heart disease if left unchecked.
Bacteria present in human mouths contribute to this unpleasant odor, as does food that ferments or decays within our bodies. This issue is especially troublesome for individuals suffering from digestive disorders like acid reflux, Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
Pigs don’t face this same problem because their digestive systems process food much more rapidly, eliminating much of the time that food could ferment or produce smells. Furthermore, most of what they eat gets spit out into their waste system and away from their mouths to further minimize odor-producing bacteria and their presence in their systems.
Pigs may appear unclean at first glance, but they actually maintain extremely clean living environments. Pigs do not defecate in close proximity to their living or feeding areas and avoid wallow-ing in muddy patches which contain Pasteurella multocida germs that cause serious infections in humans. Instead, they prefer sitting near small ponds of water to cool themselves as opposed to sitting in muddy patches for cooling purposes.
Nate Bonham and Calli Gade from the YouTube channel King of Random recently conducted an experiment in order to determine what animal has the cleanest mouth. Using Petri dishes to collect swabs from six animals’ mouths including cats, dogs and chickens they conducted this test over an 11 day period and found that bacteria diversity was highest for chickens while least diverse for cats.
Octopus
Ocean Fauna reports that octopus have one of the cleanest mouths among all animal species. Their mouthparts are naturally filtered to filter out sediment and other contaminants before entering their mouth, according to Ocean Fauna. Furthermore, an octopus can completely close its mouth in order to protect itself against potentially dangerous bacteria.
Octopuses can be found in most marine environments around the world and are among the most advanced cephalopods. Their brains contain multiple lobes with specific functions that process information from various parts of their bodies.
OctoNation reports that an octopus’ mouth features two hard structures – its parrot-like beak and special tongue known as a radula – used to break down and digest large chunks of meat into digestible forms more easily, as well as inject paralyzing saliva into crustaceans and snails which causes them to die quickly.
As with other mollusks, octopuses use powerful mantle muscles to quickly release water from their mantle cavities into a funnel to escape any imminent danger. They use ink for communication purposes and defense as well.
Octopuses have an ability to camouflage themselves effectively due to their solitary lifestyle and hide from predators by changing colour depending on their environment, drilling holes into crustaceans and snails using their radula’s barb-covered surface, much like cheese grater blades, which has rough barbs similar to cheese graters, or simply changing its colour depending on surroundings. They make excellent marksmen because of this.
Octopuses are not only great at protecting themselves against predators; they’re also extremely adept hunters. By expelled ink containing melanin, mucus and an irritant to disrupt smell and taste to distract any nearby animals and buy themselves some time to escape, octopuses can deceive other octopuses by changing their skin color – not something many animals are capable of doing!
Scientists do not know the precise number of octopuses living in ocean waters; however, new species continue to be discovered by scientists. While not considered threatened, octopuses are highly sensitive to pollution in their environments as well as temperature changes; as such they could become endangered species if their environment changes too drastically.