Assessing the correlation between salivary parameters and tooth wear incidence

Objective: The null hypothesis investigated was that there are no correlations between tooth wear and various salivary parameters, tested using the Saliva check kit (GC Corp). Method: Patients were recruited, with ethical approval, from Guy's Dental Hospital from a new patient assessment clinic. Tooth wear was assessed using the Smith and Knight Tooth Wear Index (TWI). Salivary parameters including: salivary viscosity, resting pH, paraffin-wax stimulated flow rate and salivary buffering were assessed using the GC Salivary test kit. All patients were recruited in the morning having not eaten for at least 2 hours. Results: A total of 57 patients were recruited with mean age of 55 years (52% females, 38% smokers). The mean resting pH of saliva was 6.67 (S.D 0.39), with a stimulated flow rate of 1.19ml/min (S.D 0.62), mean buffering capacity of 9.58 (S.D 2.67). The group had an average TWI scores equal or greater then 2 at 16.32% (S.D 22.48). Seven patients had severe tooth wear (greater then 2 at 75.9%; S.D 29.23) with a mean resting pH of 6.6 (S.D 0.32), stimulated flow rate of 1.13ml/min (S.D 0.35) and buffering capacity of 7.29 (S.D 3.45). There were no significant correlations between tooth wear and saliva. Conclusion: In this group of patients saliva was not correlated to tooth wear.