Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development

Dental calculus occurs in most adults worldwide. Dental calculus serves as an ideal substrate for sub-gingival microbial colonization and also initiates the inflammatory reaction in the gingiva that leads to periodontitis. Now research has been focused more on inhibition of crystal growth to reduce the formation of calculus. Thus, the aim of the present study is to assess the levels of Orthophosphate, Pyrophosphate, Pyrophosphatase and Citric acid in whole saliva with reference to Calculus groups and Plaque groups.

103 patients were randomly selected from Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Chennai-600100 for this current study. Depending on the calculus index score, individuals were divided into four groups: Group 1, calculus index score 0 to 0.6; Group 2, calculus index score 0.7 to 1.8; Group 3, calculus index score 1.9 to 3; and Group 4, plaque group where index varied from 0 to 3. The saliva was collected and biochemically analyzed for concentration of orthophosphate, pyrophosphate, pyrophosphatase and citric acid.

The mean values of orthophosphate in group 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 4.7981, 4.8683, 6.1830 & 4.7904. The mean values of pyrophosphate in group 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 1.2056, 1.1085, 1.0879 and 1.2738. The mean values of pyrophosphatase in group 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 0.1592, 0.1619, 0.1803 and 0.1173. The mean values of citric acid were 0.1687, 0.1753, 0.1698 and 0.1816.

The result of the study shows that the components presented in saliva like orthophosphate, pyrophosphate and pyrophosphatase had a significant role with regard to calculus formation and inhibition. However, Citric acid requires increase in sample size to give satisfactory statistical analysis.