That kissing is even better than flossing for protecting the health of your teeth is the latest word from America’s dental hygiene experts. That’s good news and an added bonus for gay men; researchers at George Mason University, working in conjunction with Indiana University, recently studied the sexual behaviors of 24,787 gay men who had a same sex encounter within the last year found that almost 75% engaged in kissing during their tryst. (Almost the same percentage reported that oral sex was also part of the repertoire, proving that most men just don’t know when to quit.)

According to the experts, while kissing is fun and erotic – with the right guy – it’s also good for you and should be part of your daily health regime. Turns out its not the pucker power or reach of the tongue that makes kissing good for your teeth, but saliva, which evidently is good for every body.

Kissing is nature’s cleansing process,” says Heidi Hausauer, a dentist and spokeswoman for the Academy of Dental Hygienists. “Saliva washes out the mouth and helps remove the cavity-causing food particles that accumulate after meals.”

And, yup, smells like science to me:

When you kiss someone, the salivary glands under your tongue and in your cheeks stimulate your saliva, which contains water, proteins, electrolytes, and mineral salts. Saliva is important for keeping your mouth healthy; it’s nature’s lubricant for your mouth. And makes for an acceptable lubricant for other areas of the body too. But saliva is a lube with added benefits. For one, it helps protect and rebuild your teeth.

Tooth enamel, which is one of the hardest substances in our bodies, protects the inner layers of the teeth. Because the mineral salts in saliva help to rebuild the minerals in tooth enamel, this also helps to prevent tooth erosion and decay. So finding a hot guy to kiss daily is a great way to prevent cavities and to avoid tooth loss (which will make finding someone willing to kiss you that much more difficult). But wait! There’s more!

Everyone has bacteria in their saliva; about 80% is common to everyone 20% however is unique to each individual. When you swap spit with someone, you are exchanging the 20% unique bacteria that you have in your mouth with the unique bacteria that they have in their mouth. This means that by exchanging saliva, you are being exposed, and become resistant to that 20% of unique bacteria. And that’s a good thing.

The exchange of saliva in kissing stimulates your immune system to create antibodies to the ‘foreign’ bacteria, a process called cross-immunotherapy which helps you fight infection. So one of the best ways to avoid infections is to pucker up, and to pucker up often with as many different guys as you can. And you thought being a ‘butterfly’ was just about variety.

If swapping spit is good, then swapping more is even better. Deep kissing, or French kissing as we call it in the U.S. (um, what do they call that in France?) stimulates the flow of saliva, which neutralizes acids and re-mineralizes teeth. More saliva also means that your mouth will be less dry, and dry mouths are more prone to infections because of the reduced saliva production.

Dry mouth becomes more common as we get older and can be caused by prescription drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure, and thanks to medications such as antihistamines, decongestants, pain killers, and diuretics, many of which reduce the flow of saliva. If you are a senior with an expansive daily medication regime, kissing – and kissing deeply – becomes an even more beneficial daily requirement for your overall health. I’d have to check with the IRS, but its possible then that the cost of your boy d jour may be deductible as a medical expense on your income taxes.

Thanks to the dental profession we now know kissing is important in keeping your mouth, teeth and gums healthy. So pucker up and take your medicine like a man.