The impact of dental environment stress on dentition status, salivary nitric oxide and flow rate

Abstract

A BSTRACT Aim: This study aimed to assess the dental caries experience among dental students with different levels of dental environment stress in relation to salivary nitric oxide (NO) and flow rate of whole unstimulated saliva. Materials and Methods: The study involved 300 dental students. They were classified into three categories (mild stress, moderate stress, and severe stress) according to dental environment stress questionnaire (DESQ); clinical examination for dental caries was carried out. Unstimulated salivary samples were collected from the mild and severe stress groups for measuring the salivary flow rate. Estimation of salivary NO was carried out by using salivary NO test strips. All data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software, version 21.0 (SPSS, Chicago, Illinois). Results: Dental caries experience was higher among severe and moderate stress groups with nonsignificant differences ( P > 0.05). Mean value of salivary flow rate was lower among severe stress group with nonsignificant differences ( P > 0.05). NO was significantly higher among severe stress group ( P < 0.05). Flow rate was weak negatively correlated with caries experience among both mild and severe stress groups except for the decay surface (DS), which was weak positive among mild stress group. NO was weak negatively correlated with DS among both mild and severe stress groups. All these correlations were statistically not significant ( P > 0.05). Conclusion: Dental environment stress appears to affect oral health, shown by higher dental caries among dental students with severe dental environment stress by affecting the normal level of salivary flow rate and NO.

Evaluation of ICCMS versus CAMBRA Caries Risk Assessment Models Acquisition on Treatment Plan in Young Adult Population: A Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Although the selection of dental students has many benefits, such as high levels of awareness, in that students seemed to understand the details of important concepts of proper oral hygiene, in agreement with Nassar, 39 on other hand it has drawbacks since the dental environment stress appears to affect oral health passively, which is shown by higher dental caries among dental students with severe dental environment stress affecting the normal level of salivary flow rate. 40 …”

“…38 Although the selection of dental students has many benefits, such as high levels of awareness, in that students seemed to understand the details of important concepts of proper oral hygiene, in agreement with Nassar, 39 on other hand it has drawbacks since the dental environment stress appears to affect oral health passively, which is shown by higher dental caries among dental students with severe dental environment stress affecting the normal level of salivary flow rate. 40 Finally, because of the complexity of dental caries, a genetic factor on caries liability has a moderately strong evidence; for example genes related to enamel formation, physical characteristics of saliva and dietary desire, also the onset and progression of dental caries may be affected by micronutrient insufficiencies. 41 In the current study it was observed that general oral health was improved in both systems, although the development of new carious lesions may be due to previously mentioned causes in the Discussion.…”

The Role of Oral Nitrate-Reducing Bacteria in the Prevention of Caries: A Review Related to Caries and Nitrate Metabolism

“…Zhang et al [2021] compared the differences in salivary biochemical indices between patients with early childhood caries and healthy children and found that the salivary nitrate concentration in children with early childhood caries was significantly lower than that in healthy individuals, and this concen-tration was negatively correlated with the DMFT index. Al-Moosawi and Qasim found that salivary nitric levels in healthy individuals were significantly higher than those in caries-active patients [Al-Moosawi and Qasim, 2020]. Other studies have obtained similar results and confirmed their conclusions [Syed et al, 2016].…”

Assessment of Oral Hygiene and Gingival Health Condition and their Relationship with Some Salivary Variables among Boxers

“…Stress-related endocrine changes, neglect of oral hygiene, changes in dietary intake and decreased salivary flow are all factors that appears to effect on oral health as associated with gingival diseases. Athletes frequently have the conditions above, which are all related to physical activity (24)(25)(26).…”