SALIVARY AND SERUM MODIFICATIONS OF THE BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS IN PREGNANT WOMEN WITH TOOTH DISORDERS

Introduction: Saliva plays an important part in the maintenance of oral health as it contains many innate and acquired factors with a protective role on the oral tissue.(1) Changes in salivary composition during pregnancy induce an increased response of the gingival tissues to local factors, such as plaque, tartar and hard tissues.(2) Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the concentrations of salivary and serum concentrations of calcium, phosphate, urea, total proteins and ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase), ALP (alkaline phosphatase) and to assess whether the activities of the enzymes can serve as a tool for the diagnostic of tooth disorders in pregnant women. Materials and methods: The studied batch was divided in the following groups: (1) pregnant women with dental caries n=12 (2) pregnant women with gingivitis n=15 (3) non-pregnant women n =15. The results were compared to a control group matched with the study groups in terms of age, BMI, blood pressure. All determinations were done on HITACHI 912 Roche Diagnostics. Results and discussions: Pregnant women with dental caries had a higher salivary AST 7.23±6.12U/L than non- pregnant women 2.87±1.9 (p =0.03). We obtained significant variations between serum and saliva for some parameters (see table no. 4). For other parameters, no important differences between serum and saliva (p> 0.05) were noticed. Conclusions: An increased salivary enzyme reflects the biological activity in the gingival tissue. Saliva can be used as diagnostic tests in pregnant women with tooth disorders.