Oral Conditions that Affect Salivary Biomarkers -Preliminary Survey by Self-administrated Questionnaire

• Published in: JOURNAL OF DENTAL HEALTH Vol. 62; no. 4; pp. 391 - 396
• Main Authors: Erika KAKUTA, Akira IDA, Hiromi NOMURA, Yoh TAMAKI, Tomoko ABO, Ryoko OTSUKA, Takatoshi MURATA, Yoshiaki NOMURA, Nobuhiro HANADA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Society for Oral Health 30.07.2012
• ISSN: 0023-2831

Recently, salivary biomarkers such as lactose dehydrogenase (LD) and hemoglobin (Hb) have been used to screen for periodontal disease without oral examination by dental professions. These salivary biomarkers reflect bleeding from the oral cavity. Self-reported questionnaires are often used for mass screening for periodontal disease. The items on such questionnaires generally apply to lifestyle and subjective symptoms; however, not all of the data from questions are necessary to screen for periodontal disease. This study aimed to identify indispensable items on the questionnaire. and investigated the relationship between such symptoms and salivary biomarkers. The 46 subjects attended a health check in Higashi Oumi City. We excluded 3 subjects:1 subject because of an incomplete questionnaire and 2 subjects because they were outliers with regard to salivary biomarkers. Thus, the number of subjects studied was 43 (male, 3; female, 40;mean age, 51.8 ± 9.8 year). The questionnaire used in this study consisted of 8 items related to subjective oral symptoms and lifestyle factors such as smoking status. Salivary levels of LD and Hb were measured using commercially available kits that were developed for routine medical examination. We compared the values of salivary biomarkers between subjects with or without each symptom. In addition, to classify the subjects participating in this study, two-step cluster analysis was performed. The values for Hb were clearly higher in subjects reporting "Gum bleeding or flowing pus" and "Dry mouth sensation". The values for LD and Hb were higher in subjects with 7 symptoms (not statistically significant). Periodontal disease is not the only cause of bleeding from the oral cavity; the oral mucosa is sensitive to dryness, and this may lead to high values of Hb in subjects with dry mouth sensation. These results suggest that salivary biomarkers such as Hb are useful to screen for periodontal disease and dry mouth; however, this was a preliminary survey, and further research is necessary in larger numbers of subjects.