Correlation Between Salivary Examination of Periodontal Disease and Lifestyle Diseases

Objectives: To assess the relationship between the results of salivary examination of dental health and lifestyle diseases.
Methods: One thousand and thirty-one citizens (35-74 years-old) participated in the study. They underwent both salivary examination using the salivary multi-test system (SMT, Lion Corporation, Tokyo) and specific health checkups concerning lifestyle diseases. Then, the correlation between the result of salivary test (occult blood, white blood cells, protein, ammonia) and that of the health examinations (blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose) is analyzed.
Results: Nine hundred and forty-six subjects satisfied the saliva test criteria and included in the analyses. A statistically significant correlation was found between each parameter of the salivary examination and high blood pressure (Speaman’s rank correlation coefficient, p<0.05). The subjects judged as having hypertension had higher amount of salivary-blood, white blood cell, protein, and ammonia. In addition, a statistically significant association was found between either of the saliva protein or ammonia and hyperglycemia (Speaman’s rank correlation coefficient, P <0.05). Higher amount of salivary protein or ammonia was observed in the subjects judged as having hyperglycemia.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed that there was a significant correlation between lifestyle disease and the amount of salivary-blood, -white blood cell, -protein, and -ammonia, which reflected the presence of periodontal disease. They also suggested the possibility of dental examination using saliva in a health checkup for lifestyle disease.