Evaluation of Total Antioxidant Capacity of Saliva in High School Students

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Imbalance between oxidative stress and saliva antioxidants plays a major role in initiation and spread of dental caries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of saliva in dental caries. METHODS In this case-control study which employed high school students (14-18 years), the un-stimulated saliva samples of 60 students without dental caries (control group) and 60 students with dental caries (with at least 5 teeth levels of dental caries) were gathered. Each group comprised of males (half of cases) and females (half of cases). TAC of saliva was measured by Zellbio® (Netherlands) in terms of micmol/L. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (ver. 17.0) and t-test with considering significance level at 0.05. RESULTS TAC of saliva was significantly lower in cases with dental caries (0.256±0.106) compared to those without dental caries (0.396±0.077); P< 0.001. There was no statistically significant difference of TAC of saliva between males (0.319±0.119) and females (0.333±0.113) irrespective of dental caries (P=0.507). CONCLUSION The results of the study indicated that there was a reverse association between dental caries and TAC of saliva.