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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1. The areas that are most likely to have foreign bacteria have the best protections against them. Basically any area where foreign objects can easily enter your body. This includes your mouth, nose, eyes, ears, genitals, anus.
These areas will be *Much* better protected than a random cut you get, your body is absolutely not prepared to have a foreign object enter your kidneys. Now that doesn’t mean it’s safe to stick foreign things in these areas, but it’s saf-*er*. Also some of these areas – while better protected – are still more delicate, and thus more susceptible to infection, eg. your eyes.
2. It’s not safe. “*Relatively* safe” means you’re less likely to get an infection in your mouth or your genitals than if you somehow got it in your lungs, but it’s absolutely not safe.
If you’re not in a commited relationship you should always use condoms. In all-girls schools they teach the girls to use rubber gloves when engaging in same-sex activities to avoid spreading infections – I don’t know if any of them listen but this is the best medical advice. For oral sex on girls I don’t know if there is a good answer (*if anyone knows feel free to chime in*).
3. This will somewhat contradict my previous 2 points, but please don’t take away that there is no danger. The third point is that Human Beings have developed immune systems to deal with infections. Chances are you have some kind of infection or antigen causing you problems right now, but as long as your immune response can handle it you won’t even notice. You only start to feel sick/sore/feverish when the infection/virus/whatever starts to overwhelm your immune system. Once again though don’t take from this that you’re invincible. Mostly people are fine, but sometimes they end up in hospital with a story too embarrassing to tell their boss on Monday.
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