19/05/2025
Tooth decay isn’t just about eating too much sugar or skipping your brushing routine—it’s actually an infectious disease. The main troublemaker is a bacterium called Streptococcus mutans, which lives in your mouth and produces acid that wears away your tooth enamel. What’s even more surprising? You can catch it from someone else. Saliva-sharing activities like kissing or using the same spoon can easily spread these bacteria. In fact, researchers at the University of Louisville found that parents or caregivers often pass the germs to young children just by sharing utensils or licking a pacifier clean. And get this—a study in the journal Microbiome found that a single 10-second French kiss can transfer up to 80 million bacteria between people!
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