Associations between salivary calcium and oral health

Recently, we have shown positive correlations between high salivary calcium content and periodontitis, and between high salivary calcium level and the number of intact teeth in selected groups of subjects. The aim of our present study was to determine whether these correlations could be seen in a randomized group of healthy adults. A thorough oral examination including orthopantomograms was carried out for a total of 137 healthy subjects, 63 men (35.4+/-5.6 years) and 74 women (33.2+/-4.7 years). Paraffin-stimulated saliva was collected from the subjects and salivary flow (ml/min), buffering capacity, calcium (mMol/l) and microbial variables including lactobacilli, yeasts, mutans streptococci, total streptococci, total number of aerobes, and anaerobes were determined. The calcium level of whole saliva had a median of 1.23 mMol/l. Subjects with calcium level below the median were categorized as 'low', while those with higher values formed the 'high' salivary calcium group. There were more men than women in the 'High' salivary calcium group (p=0.025). Subjects in the 'high' calcium group showed more bleeding on probing (p=0.026), had more intact teeth (p=0.045), and lower DMF-scores (p=0.025) than their counterparts. No other differences were found between the two groups. We found clear associations between the level of salivary calcium and factors reflecting gingival health on one hand, and dental health on the other in a randomly selected group of healthy subjects, and conclude that salivary calcium may be important with regard to both dental and gingival health.