Correlation between dental caries and salivary immunoglobulin in adult Indian population: An in vivo study

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the relationship between dental caries and salivary immunoglobulins (S-Igs) in unstimulated saliva of young adults between the age group of 20 and 30 years from South Canara district, Karnataka with varying caries experience as determined by their Decayed Missing Filled Teeth (DMFT) scores. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 80 healthy adult subjects with age group between 20 and 30 years. The healthy subjects without any chronic diseases were selected. The patients were divided into four groups according to DMFT status (WHO, 1997) as G-I, DMFT 0; G-II, DMFT 1-5; G-III, DMFT 6-10; and G-IV, as DMFT above 10. Unstimulated saliva samples were collected from each subjects and checked for S-IgA and IgG. The obtained data was statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey`s Honestly Significant Difference test. Results: Correlation of DMFT with S-IgA showed that as the S-IgA levels decreased in the saliva, there was increase in the DMFT levels. With intergroup comparison of S-IgA, there is no significant difference between group I and group II. There was no significant correlation seen between the S-IgG G levels and dental caries experience. Conclusion: The S-IgA increases with decrease in caries activity and S-IgG does not show any correlation with dental caries.