| Summary: |
Saliva plays an important role in maintaining oral health and functions.
In the present study, unstimulated and stimulated whole salivary flow and
various oral complaints were surveyed in 1427 individuals, 669 men (47%) and
758 women (53%). These individuals, aged 20 to 69 years and from different socioeconomic
backgrounds, were recruited from 2000 randomly selected men and
women in the register of the public dental health service in northern Sweden. The
unstimulated salivary flow rate ranged from 0 to 2.07 mL/min (mean 0.33ºSD
0.26) for men, and from 0 to 1.35 mL/min (mean 0.26ºSD 0.21) for women. The
stimulated salivary flow rate ranged from 0.17 to 7.3 mL/min (mean 2.50ºSD
1.06) for men, and from 0 to 6.40 mL/min (mean 2.02ºSD 0.93) for women.Women
over 55 years of age had a reduced unstimulated salivary flow (P°0.05). Individuals
with many teeth had a higher stimulated salivary flow than those with fewer
teeth (P°0.001). Male smokers had a lower unstimulated salivary flow than male
non-smokers (P°0.05).
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