Study of Salivary Volumes by the Modified Ion Dilution Method

Abstract

There have been many studies on the relationships among various methods for determining whole salivary volume and these methods' effectiveness. The methods of determining this volume include those that determine the salivary volume of a subject at rest and during salivary stimulation. The convention method uses both the spitting method at rest and the paraffin mastication method. In the present study, we compared the reproducibility of the salivary volumes determined by the modified ion dilution method (the modified fluoride dilution method) and conventional methods. Salivary volumes in decreasing order were sour stimulation with the modified fluoride dilution (MFD) method, during mastication, under tasteless stimulation with the MFD method, and at rest. Higher correlations were found between the salivary volumes at rest and during mastication determined by the conventional method (r=0.57, p<0.001) and between salivary volumes under tasteless stimulation and sour stimulation by the MFD method (r=0.56, p<0.001). With a collection time of 1 minute, the MFD method featured a smaller coefficient of variation and higher reproducibility than those of the spitting and paraffin mastication methods, indicating its usefulness.