The role of saliva in the oral cavity is manifold; an important function is to serve as lubricant between hard (enamel) and soft (mucosal) tissues. Intraoral lubrication is of crucial importance in order to maintain functions such as deglutition, mastication and the faculty of speech. A large number of people suffer from impaired salivary functions, displaying symptoms such as 'dry mouth'. This results in a need for methods to assess the lubricating properties of both native saliva as well as potential artificial saliva formulations. Here we measure normal as well as lateral forces, acting between adsorbed salivary films, for the first time by means of colloidal probe atomic force microscopy. We find that the presence of salivary pellicles between hard surfaces reduces the friction coefficient by a factor of 20. This reduction of friction is consistent with the long-range purely repulsive nature of the normal forces acting between the salivary films. The lubricating mechanism is presumably based on a full separation of the sliding surfaces by the salivary films. The friction between salivary films has been investigated at normal loads that well cover the clinical jaw closing forces, and it can be concluded that the lubricating properties are maintained within this load interval. The present study indicates the usefulness of colloidal probe atomic force microscopy, which offers a direct and quantitative measure of the lubrication on a molecular level, in the study of biotribological phenomena. In particular, the results obtained here may have implications for the development of saliva substitutes