To investigate clinical value of total saliva flow rates.
The symptom of dry mouth was correlated with unstimulated (UWSFR) and stimulated (SWSFR) whole saliva flow rates on chewing medical paraffin in 62 patients with dry mouth complaints (30 with Sjögren's syndrome, 32 with sialosis) and 23 controls. The symptom of dry mouth was classified into 0,1,2,3,4 according to a treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS). UWSFR and SWSFR were determined after fasting in the morning.
UWSFR was (0.070 +/- 0.089) ml/min in Sjögren's syndrome, (0.175 +/- 0.115) ml/min in sialosis, (0.330 +/- 0.188) ml/min in controls. SWSFR was (0.709 +/- 0.720) ml/min in Sjögren's syndrome, (1.561 +/- 0.867) ml/min in sialosis, (1.894 +/- 0.661) ml/min in controls. A highly significant correlation was found between TESS score and UWSFR and between TESS score and SWSFR. Only UWSFR was decreased in the patients with a TESS score of 1 or 2, while both UWSFR and SWSFR were significantly decreased in patients with TESS scores of 3,4.
It is concluded that UWSFR is more sensitive in relation to dry mouth complaints than SWSFR, and that a mild dry mouth is mainly related to decreased UWSFR.