Salivary analysis and oral symptoms in controlled asthmatic patients

Abstract

Asthma is a common inflammatory condition of lung airways. Its cause is
incompletely understood .
Patients with bronchial asthma are affected both by the disease and its treatment .
The purpose of our study was to examine the salivary composition in asthmatic patients ,
and study the association between asthma and occurrence of selected oral symptoms .
The study was divided into two phases. In the first phase (salivary analysis) the
salivary composition and unstimulated salivary flow rates of 50 asthmatic patients were
compared with that of 25 non -asthmatic subjects. In the second phase (questionnair
survey) the occurrence of symptoms of oral diseases in asthmatics (n=I I3) was compared
with that of non—asthmatic subjects (n=ll I .)
In addition to the symptoms of oral diseases, data on background information
were taken. The results of salivary analysis showed no statistically significant differences
between the asthmatic and non- asthmatics concerning the salivary flow rate and
composition, However, the asthmatic saliva samples showed lower potassium and higher
inorganic phosphorus levels .
In the questionnair survey , the subjects reported more symptoms (dry mouth ,sore
mouth , halitosis , pain in Temporomandibular jiont (TMI) , stuffiness in (TMI) and
clicking in (TMI) compaired to the controlled group. The presence of asthma
precipitating factors and medication used had a considerable effect on the probability of
having symptoms of oral diseases when compaired to non- users