A disgusting amount of bacteria enters your mouth every time you kiss someone.

A very important scientific study has confirmed the amount of bacteria that is transferred into our mouths every time we share an intimate kiss with someone.

And it doesn’t sound pleasant.

According to researchers at the Netherlands Organisation for Applies Scientific Research, an intimate kiss (at least 10 seconds and involving tongue – no prudes allowed) results in EIGHTY MILLION bacteria being exchanged between mouths.

Eighty. Million. Every time you share the romance that is a kiss:

According to the data published in open access journal Microbiome, scientists took swabs from the couple’s mouths. Then they asked one person in the couple to drink a probiotic beverage (bacteria city), before getting the couple to kiss. When they took mouth swabs again after the kiss, they found that 80 million bacteria from the probiotic beverage had made it’s way into the non-drinker’s mouth.

In other words: ALL IT TAKES IS ONE KISS TO END UP WITH A WHOLE LOT OF FOREIGN CRAP IN YOUR MOUTH.

And then (and this is the particularly gross part if you have a partner whom you love to kiss), they tested the bacteria in the mouths of couples who kiss at least 9 times a day, and found that those couples actually swap bacteria so often that they had started to grow the same communities of oral bacteria.

So basically, if you and your special someone mack on too much, you most likely have twin bacteria cities in your mouths. Little bacteria cousins probably visit each other for dinner every time your tongues touch.

That’s that. Another important update from the sciencey world of science.

Just try and kiss your partner now without imagining 80 million wriggly things setting up camp on the inside of your cheek. JUST TRY.

[raw]

Like Mamamia Rogue on Facebook

Rogue is Mamamia’s space for fun, viral and random content, with everything from feminism to pop culture. We scour the internet so you don’t have to, and bring all the best bits back.

[/raw]