Fiction. This misconception regarding the cleanliness of dog's mouths probably originated from the thought that most diseases are species specific. This means that most communicable canine diseases, with the exception of rabies, do not generally affect humans. While it is true that dog bites are less likely to transmit a communicable disease to a human, they are still quite capable of causing an infection.Dog's mouths are filled with all kinds of bacteria, depending of course upon what the dog had in its mouth recently. When you consider that dogs use their mouths much like people use their hands, the bacteria counts in their mouths can be quite high. Suppose your dog has been eating fecal material, taste testing a dead animal, licking your shoe, or simply chewing on a stick that has been decomposing on the ground-your dog could have a nice selection of harmful bacteria cultivating within the mouth.
The tongue is an elongated, mobile, muscular organ. The teeth are highly specialized structures for the procuring, cutting, and crushing of food. The mouth is the entrance to the gastrointestinal tract....
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