Mark Consuelos Reflects on Concerning Lack of Sensation When Food Touches His Face: “What Age Do Men Lose Nerve Endings on the Side of their Face?”

Kelly Ripa is keeping both her and Mark Consuelos in check.

On Wednesday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, Ripa discussed the origins of kissing and shared that it is believed to have started with apes grooming each other around the face.

“It was easier around the mouth to just start slurping off the little mites, and bugs, and critters around the face,” she quipped.

After Consuelos asked Ripa what kind of mites she was referring to, Ripa said “whatever debris is around.”

During the conversation, Consuelos jokingly remarked about losing nerve endings on the side of the face with age and teased Ripa about having a field day with it.

Ripa added, “Oh, where all of your dinner is around your face?”

Consuelos mentioned that he doesn’t feel these sensations as much anymore, which Ripa found odd. He admitted that Ripa and their children often have to point it out to him, indicating the changes with age.

Ripa echoed, “Yeah, the whole time he eats we’re like, ‘Can’t you feel that? Can’t you feel that an entire lasagna is hanging off your chin? You can’t feel it?’”

Consuelos highlighted that “it wasn’t always like that,” noting that “it just started happening.”

Ripa replied, “I know, it’s really wild.”

While Consuelos proposed that this may be happening because of all “the years of shaving,” Ripa was uncertain.

“I don’t know. I just find it disgusting,” she teased.

However, Ripa admitted that she is “the same way now” when it comes to getting food stuck in her teeth.

“I used to marvel, like when I would talk to older adults,” she explained. “And by older adults, now comparatively, [are] much younger than me. But I would talk to older adults, particularly on the set of All My Children, and I would be like, ‘Why can’t you feel that whole salad stuck in your teeth?’ And now I’m the person that cannot feel the entire salad stuck in my teeth.”

Ripa shared that she has even taken extra precautions while she and Consuelos are out to dinner with friends.

“I’m like, ‘I’ll be right back.’ And he’s like, ‘Where are you going?’ I’m like, ‘Where do you think I’m going?’ And I bring floss with me to the restaurant and I go into the bathroom,” she said.

Consuelos asked, “Is that what you’re doing?”

Ripa said, “Yes! Because an entire smorgasbord that everyone’s pretending not to notice is stuck in my teeth.”

Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. Check out their website for your local listings.