Quantitative Analysis of Salivary Constituents and Their Relation with Dental Caries in Adult Population

Background: Saliva is a complex mixture of fluids which regulates oral health. Studies have stated that calcium and phosphorous content of saliva is low in caries active persons. But most investigators have been unable to confirm this finding .This is attributed to the interplay of other factors including proteins and enzymes. Thus levels and state of calcium and phosphorous in saliva may be an indicator of susceptibility to dental caries.Thus the current study aims to determine the levels of salivary constituents like calcium, phosphorous, proteins and alkaline phosphatase in caries group and caries free group and assess their relationship with prevalence of dental caries. Materials & Methods: Based on the DMFS score,50 subjects in the age group of 18-25 were selected and they were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 (n=30) consisted of subjects with caries (DMFS ≥5). Group 2 (n=20) is the caries free group(DMFS <0).5ml of unstimulated saliva samples were collected from each and analysed using colorimetric method for the each constituents under study. Results:The mean calcium level in group 1 (DMFS≥5) was 5.41 ± 1.09 and that of group 2 (DMFS=0) was 7.72 ± 3.2. The mean phosphorous level in group 1 (DMFS≥5) was 3.76±1.67 and that of the group 2 (DMFS=0) was 8.85 ± 5. 72. In group 1, the mean total protein was 7.02 ± 1.30 and in group 2 it was found to be 4.89 ± 2.96. The salivary alkaline phosphatase level between group 1 and group 2 was and 29.1 ± 18.79 and 20.4 ± 8.6 respectively. A negative or indirect correlationship exists between salivary calcium and phosphorus concentrations and caries. A direct positive and highly significant correlationship was shown to exist between alkaline phosphatase concentration and caries. Conclusion:Conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that the level of calcium and inorganic phosphorous were high in caries free population and total proteins and alkaline phosphatase were high in caries active population. The concentration of calcium and inorganic phosphorous showed negative correlation with caries prevalence. Eventhough the salivary protein and alkaline phosphatase show a positive correlation with DMFS, it is not satistically significant (p=0.234).