Some old wives\u2019 tales just never seem to go away, despite scientific evidence, expert knowledge and even common sense. This month\u2019s myth is one of those tales:<\/p>\n
On this day that celebrates love, and knowing how many dog owners love<\/em> receiving kisses from their canine companions, we thought this would be a good topic to address today.<\/p>\n Take a moment to think about all of your dog\u2019s various behaviors\u2026 Despite all the butt licking, foot grooming, garbage chomping and carrion carrying done by the average dog \u2014 not to mention the lack of routine dental hygiene \u2014 is it really possible that a dog\u2019s mouth could be cleaner than the typical human\u2019s mouth?<\/p>\n No.<\/em><\/p>\n According to veterinary dental specialists and veterinary microbiologists, the answer is an emphatic \u201cno.\u201d Some veterinary specialists consider comparing the cleanliness of dog and human mouths to be similar to comparing apples and oranges \u2014 really dirty apples and really filthy oranges. Why? Because the mouths of both dogs and people are teeming with bacteria. (There\u2019s a reason for the terms \u201cdog breath\u201d and \u201cmorning breath.\u201d) And how should \u201cclean\u201d be defined? Lower numbers of bacteria? Fewer disease-causing species of bacteria?<\/p>\n The majority of a dog\u2019s dental bacteria (aka oral microbiome) are different from those of people. However, using DNA<\/a> and RNA technology<\/a>, researchers have found that a small number of bacteria (about 5 to 16 percent) live in both canine and human mouths. While scientists once thought that the different bacteria were unable to cause disease in people, they now know that\u2019s not true. Some bacteria in dogs\u2019 mouths can cause disease in people under the right conditions.<\/p>\n The myth\u2019s origin seems to stem from the observation that dogs lick their wounds, which enables healing with minimal, if any, infection. This observation caused some people to believe that canine saliva has some sort of healing property. They\u2019re correct \u2014 to a point \u2014 since dog (and human) saliva has been shown to contain compounds with limited antibacterial properties<\/a>. (Saliva also contains lots of other substances, including bacteria and viruses.) Veterinarians say it\u2019s far more likely that licking helps wound healing because it removes debris and dead tissue.<\/p>\n One misconception associated with the old wives\u2019 tale that a dog\u2019s mouth is cleaner than a human\u2019s is the belief that wounds resulting from a human bite are more likely to become infected than those from a dog bite. This is also no longer considered true. Physicians now know that human bites<\/a> occurring anywhere other than the hand have the same risk of infection as dog bites.<\/p>\n Since it\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day \u2014 it also happens to be National Pet Dental Health Month \u2014 should you let your dog kiss you?<\/p>\n That depends.<\/p>\n Most veterinarians will say it\u2019s fine to let your dog lick you, as long as your dog isn\u2019t licking your face, mouth or an open sore. Infants, young children and those with compromised immune systems, however, will want to avoid sloppy wet dog kisses. For reasons why these groups should avoid such canine affection, check out this blog post<\/a> by Dr. Shelley Rankin, associate professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s School of Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t overlook this factor when considering that kiss: If your canine companion likes to sample their or other pets\u2019 stool, you might want to rethink allowing canine kisses to the face and mouth. Regardless of your decision to let your dog kiss your face today or any other day, just be sure to wash your hands before eating or touching your eyes, mouth and face.<\/p>\n Happy Valentine\u2019s Day from all of us at Diamond Pet Foods!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some old wives\u2019 tales just never seem to go away, despite scientific evidence, expert knowledge and even common sense. This month\u2019s myth is one of those tales: My dog\u2019s mouth is cleaner than a human\u2019s. On this day that celebrates love, and knowing how many dog owners love receiving kisses from their canine companions, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Is a Dog's Mouth Cleaner Than a Human's? | Diamond Pet Foods","_seopress_titles_desc":"Some old wives' tales just never seem to go away. This month's myth is one of those tales: is a dog's mouth cleaner than a human's? Read more here!","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[158,275],"tags":[185,128,10,11,539,186],"class_list":["post-4178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-myths","tag-dental","tag-diamond-pet","tag-dog","tag-health","tag-myth","tag-myths"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What\u2019s the origin of this old wives\u2019 tale?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The truth about a related myth<\/strong><\/h3>\n
So should you let your pet lick you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n