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Updated: Nov 20, 2025
Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Comparative Evaluation of Chair-Side Saliva Tests According to Current Dental Status in Adult Patient
Chris Rahiotis1, Panagiotis Mitropoulos1, Afrodite Kakaboura1
1Department of Operative Dentistry, National Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece.
Background:
this cross-sectional study evaluated the correlation of commercial chair-side saliva tests with caries status in adults.
Methods:
teeth in 87 adults (20-40 years old) were clinically examined for carious lesions according to International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) criteria. The Decayed-Missing-Filling-Tooth (DMFT) and Decayed-Missing-Filling-Surface (DMFS) indexes at D1 (lesions 1-6 according to ICDAS criteria) and D3 (lesions 4-6 according to ICDAS criteria threshold and the number of active lesions, according to the Lesion Activity Assessment (LAA)) criteria were measured. The saliva parameters measured by chair-side tests were stimulated and non-stimulated saliva flow rate, saliva consistency, saliva pH, saliva buffer capacity, and lactic acid production. The statistical analyses performed were Student t-test and Mann-Whitney U test at a = 0.05 significant level.
Results:
the low resting saliva pH was related to a high value of DMFT (D1) index (p = 0.007).
Conclusions:
among the saliva parameters measured, the values of low resting pH are associated with increased DMFT at threshold D1. None of the chair-side available saliva tests evaluated can accurately underline the tooth carious status.
