# How do mints make your mouth feel cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-mints-make-your-mouth-feel-cold/615298 "2012-03-09T18:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-mints-make-your-mouth-feel-cold/615298/1 "2012-03-09T18:19:54Z")
And is it really colder after you’ve eaten one? That’s gotta violate some laws of thermodynamics, right? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-mints-make-your-mouth-feel-cold/615298/2 "2012-03-09T18:57:49Z")
No thermodynamic laws get violated. Your mouth doesn’t actually get any colder, but it _feels_ colder because of a sensory trick. Just as the [capsaicin in hot peppers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin) creates a burning sensation by stimulating your heat-sensing nerve endings, the [menthol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menthol#Biological_properties) in mint products creates a cooling sensation by stimulating your cold-sensing nerve endings. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-mints-make-your-mouth-feel-cold/615298/3 "2012-03-09T19:03:09Z")
This is also why the kids I used to work with would come up to me with a big burn that some idiot adult had put toothpaste on. Toothpaste on a burn! Pff… (Not saying that you would do that at all, just an illustration of the ignorance we are all so bravely fighting!)