Methods: Practitioner-members of Northwest PRECEDENT are conducting a longitudinal study on caries risk assessment. At baseline 1510 patients completed a questionnaire on medication usage and salivary measures were collected. Usage of medications suspected of antisialagogue (AS) effects was summarized as 0, 1, 2 or 3+ medications. Salivary measures were dichotomized for analysis: low resting flow rate (≤90 seconds), low stimulated flow rate (≤0.6 ml/min), low resting pH (≤6.0), low stimulated pH (≤7.0), low buffering capacity (≤3 on 0 to 12 scale), and sticky, thick or frothy saliva consistency (versus clear, watery). Prevalence ratios were estimated using GEE binomial regression to assess the association between AS medication usage and saliva measures, adjusted for age. Results: The percentages of participants taking 0, 1, 2, and 3+ AS medications were 51%, 18%, 10%, and 21%, respectively. The percentage of participants with low resting flow rate was 16%, 11% had low stimulated flow rate, 9% low resting pH, 12% low stimulated, 10% low buffering capacity (≤3 on 0 to 12 scale), and 7% had thick, sticky or frothy saliva. AS medication usage was associated with low resting flow rate (e.g., prevalence ratio for 3+ vs 0 medications [PR] = 1.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-2.5); low stimulated flow rate (PR=1.6, 95% CI 0.9-2.7); low resting pH (PR=1.7, 95% CI 1.0-2.8); and low stimulated pH (PR = 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.3). AS medication usage was not associated with buffering capacity or saliva consistency (p>0.6).
Conclusions: Preliminary results support that AS medication usage was associated with lower resting and stimulated flow rate and pH, but not buffering capacity or saliva consistency. Supported by NIDCR grants DE016750 and DE016752.