Eli5: if there are a ton of harmful bacteria in every persons mouth, why is it relatively safe to give/receive oral when genitalia is so sensitive to foreign bacteria?
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This belongs in a sub where someone with an education in the subject can explain it to you like r/AskBiology but I’m a fermentation nerd with a bit of background so let me take a whack at it:
Not all bacteria are harmful, some are downright helpful and some are benign in some circumstances, helpful in others and harmful in others. Take, for example, lactobacillus. That’s a genus bacteria that is so common that when you want to cultivate it, you leave a substrate out and it just sorta happens. Luckily, lacto is one of those benign bacteria, and is even a little bit helpful in that if it grows in food it makes the food acidic, which inhibits other microbes from growing. This is how we get salt fermented foods like giardinera or pickalilly, sour beers and sourdough bread. It also forms helpful colonies in the body where that tendency to create a hostile environment for harmful microbes leads to a symbiotic relationship (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus). Tldr/eli5 – sometimes bacteria are bros and we need them, and these in particular are just *everywhere* including the mouth.
Now let’s look at e coli. Did you know that you’ve got a strong e coli colony in your body right now? We all do, in the lower bowel where it’s contained and safe. E coli only becomes a problem when it gets into the upper digestive system, but if it gets into the upper digestive system (usually via contaminated food) it’s a devastating problem.
Finally, clostridium dificile. Known in medical circles as c diff, this bacteria is just ridiculously harmful and so hard to deal with that it’s latin name translates to “difficult”. C diff is harmful in all circumstances.
Finally, let’s think a little bit: if you had an active infection of harmful bacteria in your mouth, don’t you think you’d notice?
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