Immuno-surveillance networks operating at barrier sites are tuned by local tissue cues to ensure effective immunity. Site-specific commensal bacteria provide key signals ensuring host defense in the skin and gut. However, how the oral microbiome and tissue-specific signals balance immunity and regulation at the gingiva, a key oral barrier, remains minimally explored. In contrast to the skin and gut, we demonstrate that gingiva-resident T helper 17 (Th17) cells developed via a commensal colonization-independent mechanism. Accumulation of Th17 cells at the gingiva was driven in response to the physiological barrier damage that occurs during mastication. Physiological mechanical damage, via induction of interleukin 6 (IL-6) from epithelial cells, tailored effector T cell function, promoting increases in gingival Th17 cell numbers. These data highlight that diverse tissue-specific mechanisms govern education of Th17 cell responses and demonstrate that mechanical damage helps define the immune tone of this important oral barrier. Display omitted •Distinct signals shape the Th17 cell network at the oral barrier•Oral barrier Th17 cells develop independently of commensal microbe colonization•Physiologic damage through mastication promotes the generation of oral Th17 cells•Barrier damage triggers oral Th17-cell-mediated protective immunity and inflammation The signals regulating immunity at the gingiva, a key oral barrier, remain unclear. Dutzan et al. show that oral barrier Th17 cells are induced in response to mastication rather than commensal colonization, identifying physiologic mechanical damage as a unique tissue-specific cue conditioning local immunity and inflammation at the oral barrier.