Age-Related Changes with Selected Salivary Physical Properties and Caries Experience among Healthy Adult Men

The caries process is characterized as a lifetime disease that occurs at an early phase of life. One of the most important factors which influence the development of dental caries is saliva.

The study was conducted to correlate the effect of ageing on selected physical properties of saliva and caries experience.

A cross-sectional comparative research was assessed among 90 healthy subjects (males only) who attended International Medical Center at Baghdad city. They were classified into 3 age groups (20 years, 40 years and 60 years) each age groups consisted of 30 subjects. The data was then statistically analyzed using SPSS version 22. Statistically, a significant difference was at p-value≤0.05.

The current study found that the increase in the mean value of caries experience represented by DMFs with an increase in age (7.27 ± 8.02), (22.07 ± 20.33), (60.37 ± 31.39) respectively. There was a highly statistically significant difference between different age groups (p≤0.01). The present study recorded decrease in the mean value of salivary flow rate and a slight increase in the mean value of salivary viscosity with an increase in the age with highly significant difference (p≤0.01) among different age groups, while salivary pH recorded approximately equal mean value with no significant difference among different age groups. The current study revealed a negative significant correlation between Ds fraction with salivary PH among the young age group, a positive correlation was recorded between (Ds) fraction with salivary viscosity among young and middle-aged groups.

The present data suggest that with increasing age an increase in dental caries is experienced. There are significant age-related differences in salivary physical properties that can affect the caries experience.