The Mouth and Salivary Glands Besides the teeth, gums, and tongue, the mouth contains three pairs of salivary glands that help digestion by secreting saliva, which helps break up food and keeps the mouth wet. The larynx is crucial to speech and breathing. Above the larynx is the epiglottis, which works with the larynx and vocal cords during swallowing to push food into the esophagus and keep it from entering the windpipe. Tonsils and adenoids are lumps of lymph tissue at the back and sides of the mouth. They are designed to protect against infection but have little purpose beyond childhood.
Tonsils start out rather large but eventually shrink to almond size.
Adenoids shrink so much that they are almost nonexistent in adulthood. Published under license from Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.