Relationship of Salivary Occult Blood With General and Oral Health Status in Employees of a Japanese Department Store

Accuracy of a salivary examination kit for the screening of periodontal disease in a group medical check-up (Japanese-specific health check-up)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the accuracy of a screening method using salivary tests to screen for periodontal disease.In total, 1888 individuals older than 30 years in 2017 and 2296 in 2018 who underwent medical check-ups for metabolic syndrome agreed to participate and simultaneously underwent a dental examination by dentists and salivary tests. Salivary occult blood, protein, and ammonia levels and white blood cell counts were evaluated in salivary tests using commercially available kits. The relationship between the results of the salivary tests and dental examination was examined and classification performance was analyzed.The prevalence of periodontal disease was 69.9% in 2017 and 66.8% in 2018. Salivary ammonia showed the highest classification performance in both years (sensitivity 83.5 and 83.1%, precision 73.0 and 69.3%, F-measure 0.779 and 0.756). Occult blood, which was assessed using a monoclonal antibody to human hemoglobin, also showed good performance (sensitivity 69.5%, precision 70.6%, F-measure 0.701). Questions regarding self-reported gingival bleeding were not sufficient to screen for periodontitis. The present results suggest that screening tests using salivary samples may detect periodontal disease in approximately 70% to 80% of subjects in a large population.Conclusion: Salivary ammonia and hemoglobin have potential as salivary markers in the screening of periodontal disease.

Correlations between the properties of saliva and metabolic syndrome: A prospective observational study

Saliva tests, which are easy to perform and non-invasive, can be used to monitor both oral disease (especially periodontal disease) and physical conditions, including metabolic syndrome (MetS). Therefore, in the present study the associations between saliva test results and MetS were investigated based on medical health check-up data for a large population. In total, 1,888 and 2,296 individuals underwent medical check-ups for MetS and simultaneous saliva tests in 2017 and 2018, respectively. In the saliva tests, the buffer capacity of saliva, salivary pH, the salivary white blood cell count, the number of cariogenic bacteria in saliva, salivary occult blood, protein, and ammonia levels were tested using a commercially available kit. The relationships between the results of the saliva tests and MetS components were examined in cross-sectional and longitudinal multivariate analyses. Significant relationships were detected between salivary protein levels and serum HbA1c levels or blood pressure levels and between the buffer capacity of saliva and serum triglyceride levels. In addition, salivary pH was increased irreversibly by impaired renal function. This study suggested that saliva tests conducted during health check-ups of large populations might be a useful screening tool for periodontal disease and MetS/MetS components.