Salivary flow-rate pH and mouth dryness of Chinese with Scleroderma

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To study the salivary flow-rate and pH, oral health satisfaction and subjective symptoms of mouth dryness in a group of Chinese people with scleroderma in Hong Kong. METHODS: Forty-one Chinese people with scleroderma were conveniently recruited. The age ranged from 29 to 79 with mean 54. Forty were female and one was male. All measurement were performed between 9am to 5pm. Unstimulated saliva was collected by asking them to expectorate saliva every minute for 10 minutes. Stimulated saliva was collected by asking them to chew on a silicone rubber tubing and expectorate regularly over 5 minutes. The salivary pH was measured by a pH meter. Xerostomia Inventory (XI), an 11-item questionnaire, was used to measure the subjective symptoms of mouth dryness. ANOVA was applied to study severity of subjective dry-mouth symptoms on dental satisfaction. RESULTS: The mean unstimulated salivary flow-rate and the mean stimulated salivary flow-rate were 0.18ml/min and 0.55ml/min respectively with 83% and 51% of them below the norm. More than half of them had both reduced. The mean unstimulated salivary pH was 6.9 while the stimulated salivary pH was 7.1.There were significantly more people with reduced salivary flow-rates dissatisfied with their oral health (p=0.05). The mean XI score was 24.6. Twenty-four (59%) people had a score higher than the reported norm, i.e. with subjective symptoms of dry mouth. The most common symptom (41%) noted by them was ‘The skin of my face feels dry'. CONCLUSIONS: About half of the Chinese people with scleroderma had reduced salivary flow-rates. Both unstimulated and stimulated salivary pH was either within or higher than normal range and 59% of them had subjective symptoms of mouth dryness. Reduced salivary flow-rates were associated with dissatisfaction of oral health.