Dental caries experience and salivary total protein concentration in relation to electronic cigarette smoking

Abstract

The study was conducted among college students in Al-Najaf City/Iraq, where it included evaluating dental caries experience, salivary flow rate, salivary pH and salivary total protein concentration in relation to electronic cigarette smoking. A cross-sectional method was used to compare dental caries experience, salivary flow rate, salivary pH and total protein concentration of 40 electronic cigarette smokers and 40 non-smokers considered a control group. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data, and statistical significance was determined at p >0.05. The results showed no significant difference in the dental caries experience between the two groups except DMFT. The result was significant, but there was a significant difference between the groups' salivary flow rate and pH. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference in the salivary total protein concentration of the groups. This study concluded that electronic cigarettes had potentially detrimental effects on oral health and selected physicochemical properties of saliva. Keywords: Electronic Cigarette, Dental Caries Experience, Salivary Flow Rate, Salivary pH, Total Protein.