Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, Vol 4, 351-356, Copyright © 1993 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
An epidemiologic perspective of saliva flow rates as indicators of susceptibility to oral disease
R. J. Billings
Eastman Dental Center, Rochester, NY 14620.
Catastrophic hyposalivation significantly increases susceptibility to
dental caries in dentate individuals and may cause the expression or
exacerbation of other oral diseases/disorders as well. The effect of
subcatastrophic hyposalivation on susceptibility to caries or other
diseases/disorders is less well understood. The aim of this study (part of
a larger study on the prevalence of hyposalivation) was to determine the
prevalence and to measure the association of oral pathologic conditions
with unstimulated and stimulated whole saliva flow rates. Only 6.3% of all
study participants had significantly diminished unstimulated (< 0.05
ml/min) and stimulated (< 0.50 ml/min) saliva flow rates. A total of 15
individuals were encountered with oral pathologic lesions and none of these
lesions were associated with hyposalivation. Although the prevalence of
coronal caries, root surface caries, abrasion, and erosion tended to
increase as salivary flow decreased, when the effect of age was considered
no significant differences were present. These data suggest that low saliva
flow rates alone, at least from an epidemiologic perspective, do not have a
clinically relevant effect on susceptibility to oral diseases/disorders.
