Digestion in the Mouth

The mouth  receives food. The tongue serves  in  swallowing, manipulating the food for chewing and  in perceiving taste. The teeth mechanically subdivide the  food  for easier digestion. Then, there are the salivary glands. There are three pairs of salivary glands  namely  parotid, submaxillary and  sublingual which  secrete the colourless viscous fluid called  'saliva'. Saliva helps in  swallowing the food by  lubricating the food and the neutral pH of saliva prevents the decalcification of teeth