Salivary constituents in relation to caries-experience among a group of cerebral palsied adolescents

Abstract EN

Background: Cerebral palsy is a major severe childhood disability.

The nature of handicap seems to have definite effect upon the prevalence of oral disease in handicapped individuals.

Controversy exists about the incidence of dental caries and its associated salivary risk factors in cerebral palsied children.

Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the level of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and urea in unstipulated saliva and their relations to dental caries among cerebral palsied adolescents in comparison to normal adolescents.

Materials and Methods: Thirty institutionalized cerebral palsied adolescents and 30 normal adolescents aged 11-14 years old were included in this study.

DMFS/DMFT, dmfs / dmft was assessed according to WHO (1997) and unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected and chemically analyzed to determine the concentrations of the following constituents: Ions of calcium, sodium, potassium by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer while salivary phosphorus and urea by using colorimetric method.

The average salivary flow rate was measured from the total volume, and salivary pH and buffer capacity was determined using pH meter.

All data were analyzed using SPSS version 13.

Results : the results showed a highly significant difference between study and controls for caries as a higher DMFS / DMFT was recorded among cerebral palsied adolescents than the control group (P < 0.001).

Significantly lower values of pH, flow rate and buffer capacity were found among study compared to the control group (P < 0.001).

The same results were recorded regarding salivary calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and urea.

Conclusion : A variation in salivary constituents of cerebral palsied adolescents was recorded in comparison to control group ; this may explain the high caries-experience among them.