Salivary profile of children with erosive tooth wear: a transversal study

The aim of the present transversal study was to evaluate the clinical and biochemical salivary parameters of children with and without erosive tooth wear (ETW). The study population was children aged 4 to 9 years. A trained and calibrated examiner (kappa value for intraexaminer reliability = 0.89) classified the children into ETW (n = 24) and control groups (n = 24), and applied the O'Brien index. The salivary flow rate was initially evaluated by stimulated sialometry (paraffin chewing). Afterwards, the collected saliva was submitted to biochemical analyses of pH, uric acid, total buffering capacity, ferric-reducing antioxidant power, reduced glutathione, calcium, and phosphorus. Among the ETW children, 20 (83%) had dental lesions restricted to enamel, and 4 (17%) presented lesions affecting both enamel and dentin. A statistically significant difference between the groups was obtained only for the pH values (t-test; p = 0.004), with averages of 7.31 and 7.56 for the control and the ETW groups, respectively. Considering the parameters evaluated in general, it is suggested that the salivary profile of children with ETW does not differ considerably from that of children without ETW. However, the pH mean value seems to be slightly higher in ETW children, but is still within the normal physiological range.