Akiko Shibata, DDS,(a) Jiro Minami, DDS, PhD,(b) Shigeru Nakamura, DDS,(a) Motohiro Terano, DDS,(a) Marie Koike, DDS, PhD,(a) Hidenori Suenaga, DDS, PhD,(a) and Hiroyuki Fujii, DDS, PhD(a)
(a)Division of Removable Prosthodontics and Management of Oral Function, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, and (b)Dental Health Division, Health Policy Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of whole saliva in metal allergy suspected patients.
Materials and Methods: The participants included 25 metal allergy suspected patients and 31 non-metal allergy patients. Resting and stimulated saliva were collected from the participants and subjected to measurement of flow rate, buffer capacity, and counts of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli. Moreover, the concentration of citric, pyruvic, malic, succinic, lactic, formic, acetic, propionic and carbonic acids in the saliva was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and assessed for differences between the metal allergy and control groups.
Results: The metal allergy group has a significantly lower flow rate in resting saliva than control group. In stimulated saliva, no significant difference was observed between the two groups. With regard to buffer capacity and microorganism counts, no significant difference was observed between the two groups. With regard to the concentration of organic acids, the concentration of pyruvic and lactic acids in resting saliva was significantly lower in the metal allergy group than in the control group. In stimulated saliva, we found no significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusion: The flow rate of resting saliva was lower in the metal allergy group than in the control group. Different concentrations of pyruvic and lactic acids were found in the resting whole saliva between the two groups. (Int Chin J Dent 2004; 4: 107-113.)
Clinical Significance: These findings indicate the existence of differences in the salivary characteristics between the two groups.
Key Words: flow rate, high-performance liquid chromatography, organic acid, metal allergy, whole saliva.