Skip to main content
Download PDF
  • Original article
  • Published:

No relationship of salivary flow rate or secretory immunoglobulin A to dental caries in children

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine volume 2, pages 122–125 (1997)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 April 1998

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between dental caries and the salivary flow rate, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) or other components in children, nonstimulated whole saliva was collected and teeth status was examined in 138 boys and 134 girls aged 11–12 years. The subjects were apparently healthy. The mean salivary flow rate was faster in boys than in girls (0.29 vs 0.18 ml/min, p < 0.001). In both sexes, secretion of salivary sIgA and three other components (total protein, calcium and amylase activity) was markedly dependent on salivary flow rates. These results suggest that basal components of resting saliva are secondarily secreted with the flow of saliva fluid. The mean erupted permanent teeth was 21.0 teeth (range: 10-28 teeth) in boys, and 23.0 teeth (13–28 teeth) in girls (sex-difference: p < 0.001). The means of DMFT, the DMFT ratio (% of DMFT to erupted permanent teeth) and DT+dt (sum of decayed permanent and milk teeth, an index for active caries) were 3.4 DMFT (range: 0–11 DMFT), 16.0% (0–40.0%) and 0.5 DT+dt (0–7 DT + dt) in boys, and 3.8 DMFT (0–12 DMFT), 16.2% (0–44.4%) and 0.8 DT+dt (0–5 DT+dt) in girls, respectively (sex-differences: p>0.05 in all). The salivary flow rate or the four salivary components (either concentration or secretion rate) used here had no relationship to the DMFT ratio or to DT+dt in either sex. Variation in the flow rate or in the basal components of resting saliva may not influence caries development in healthy children.

References

  1. Anonymous. Report on the Survey of Dental Disease 1993. Health Policy Bureau Ministry of Health and Welfare Japan, ed. Tokyo. Oral Health Association, 1995. (in Japanese)

  2. Lagerlof F, Oliveby A. Caries-protective factors in saleva. Adv Dent Res 1994 ;8: 229–38.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. FDI working group. Saliva: its role in health and disease. Int Dent J 1992 ;42 : 291–304.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Taubman MA, Smith DJ. Significance of salivary antibody in dental desease. Ann NY Acad Sci 1993 ;694: 202–15.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Edgar WM, Higham SM, Manning RH. Saliva stimulation and caries prevention. Adv Dent Res 1994 ;8: 239–45.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Billings R. An epidemiologic perspective of saliva flow rates as indicatiors of susceptibility to oral disease. Crit Rev Oral Bilo Med 1993 ;4: 351–6.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Grahn E, Tenovuo J, Lehtonen O-Pet al. Antimicrobial systems of human whole saliva in relation to dental caries, cario-genic bacteria, and gingival inflammation in young adults. Acta Odontol Scand 1988 ;46: 67–74.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Everhart DL, Klapper B, Carter Jr WHet al. Evaluation of dental caries experiences and salivary IgA in children aged 3–7. Caries Res 1977 ;11: 211–5.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Brandtzaeg P. Role of antibodies in saleva: facts and extrapolations. In: Guggenheim B, ed. Cariology today. Basel : Karger, 1984 : 89–97.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Challacombe SJ. Immunoglobulins in parotid saliva and serum in relation to dental caries in man. Caries Res 1976 ;10: 165–77.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Orstavik D, Brandtzaeg P. Secretion of parotid IgA in relation to gingival inflammation and dental caries experiece in man. Arch Oral Biol 1975 ;20: 701–4.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Everhart DL, Grigsby WR, Carter Jr WH. Evaluation of dental caries experience and salivary immunoglobulins in whole saliva. J Dent Res 1972 ;51: 1487–91.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wood GM, Trejdosiewicz LK, Losowsky MS. ELISA for measurement of secretory IgA distinct from IgA. J Immunol Methods 1987 ;97: 269–74.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Edgar WM. Saliva, its secretion, composition and functions. Br Dent J 1992 ;172: 305–12.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Heintze U, Birkhed D, Bjorn H. Secretion rate and buffer effect of resting and stimulated whole saliva as a function of age and sex. Swed Dent J 1983 ;7: 227–38.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Shannon IL, Feller RP. Parctid saliva flow rate, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium concentrations in relation to dental cries in children. Pediat Dent 1979 ;1: 16–20.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kugler J, Hess M, Haake D. Secretion of salivary immuno-globulin A in relation to age, saliva flow, mood sates, secretion of albumin, cortisol, and catecholamines in saliva. J Clin Immunol 1992 ;12: 45–9.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Ryberg M, Moller C, Ericson T. Saliva composition and caries development in asthmatic patients treated with β2- adrenoceptor agonists: a 4-year follow-up study. Scand J Dent Res 1990 ;99 : 212–8.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Johannson I, Saellstrom A-K, Rajan BPet al. Salivary flow and dental caries in Indian children suffering from chronic malnutrition. Caries Res 1992 ;26: 38–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Spak CJ, Johnson G, Ekstrand J. Caries incidence, salivary flow rate and efficacy of fluoride gel treatent in irradiated patients. Caries Res 1994 ;28: 388–93.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Sreebny LM. Salivary flow and dental caries. In Guggenheim B, ed. Cariology today. Basel: Karger, 1984: 56–69.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Alaluusua S, Kleemola-Kujala E, Gronroos Let al. Salivary caries-related tests as predictors of future caries increment in teenagers. A three-year longitudinal study. Oral Microbiol Immunol 1990 ;5: 77–81.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Aufricht C, Tenner W, Salzer HRet al. Salivary IgA concentration is influenced by the saliva collection method. Eur J Clin Chem Clin Biochem 1992 ;30: 81–3.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Sato K. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of SIgA in whole saliva of healthy subjects and patients with oral diseases. Bull Tokyo Med Dent Univ 1991 ;38: 9–18.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gifu Prefectural Health and Environment Research Center, Gifu

    Yutaka Watanabe & Hiromi Mizoguchi

  2. Masamura Dental Clinic, Gifu

    Kazuhito Masamura

  3. Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University, Medical School, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, 467, Nagoya, Japan

    Teruo Nagaya

Authors
  1. Yutaka Watanabe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hiromi Mizoguchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kazuhito Masamura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Teruo Nagaya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02931242.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Watanabe, Y., Mizoguchi, H., Masamura, K. et al. No relationship of salivary flow rate or secretory immunoglobulin A to dental caries in children. Environ Health Prev Med 2, 122–125 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931977

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931977

Key words

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine

ISSN: 1347-4715

Contact us