Saliva
Saliva Saliva Helps in Maintaining a Healthy Oral Microbiota A study was conducted to update the current understanding of how saliva and its various constituents, directly and indirectly, affect oral bacteria and thereby play a role in the modulation and maintenance of a healthy oral microbiota and the associations with symbiosis and dysbiosis. The search for biomedical literature on saliva and its antimicrobial activities was conducted. This review underlines that saliva plays an essential role in shaping and maintaining resident oral microbiota's ecological equilibrium. Saliva contributes to the formation of the salivary pellicle, which covers the oral hard and soft tissues and thereby determines the initial adhesion and colonization of microorganisms. Saliva facilitates the clearance of dietary carbohydrates and microorganisms from the oral cavity and supplies bacteria with nutrients through the enzymatic breakdown of dietary starch and proteins and s