Is it safe to let your pet lick you?

According to Floyd Dewhirst, a bacterial geneticist at the Forsyth Institute and Professor of Oral Medicine at Harvard University, it is ok if your immune system is strong and you do not have any wounds on your face or mouth that would let bacteria into your bloodstream. Dewhirst and his colleagues have identified around 400 kinds of oral bacteria in dogs and almost 200 in cats. So maybe think twice about a full-face slobber-fest and remember, if, like most of us, you can’t resist then please wash your hands and face after.