# Mouth --- The **mouth** is on your [[head and necl|head]], it has [[teeth]] and a [[tongue]] and produces [[salivary glands|saliva]]. It is where food enters the [[digestive system|GI tract]] and (along with the [[nose|nasal pathway]]) air enters the [[respiratory tracts]]. When eating the teeth, tongue and jaw work to perform mechanical [[digestion]] by tearing and shredding the food into smaller pieces, while the saliva from the salivary glands perform chemical digestion. ![[mouth.png]] The mouth is sometimes called the **oral cavity** as it ## Problems With the Mouth - [[stomatitis]] is an inflammation of the oral mucosa - [[xerostomia]] is dry mouth ___