A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SALIVARY pH IN DIABETIC PATIENTS WITH PERIODONTITIS AND WITHOUT PERIODONTITIS

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a common chronic disease that has emerged as a major health-care problem currently Diabetes mellitus affects 240 million people worldwide.Periodontal infections are persistent, gram-negative infections that damage not just the tissues around the tooth but also pose a systematic threat to immunocompetent cells and cells involved in the inflammatory cascade. Aim: The study aims to assess the comparison on salivary pH in diabetic patients with periodontitis and without periodontitis Materials and methods: The participants were explained about the procedure and were able to sign on the informed consent. 5 saliva samples were collected from patients with diabetes and periodontitis and 5 samples were collected from patients with diabetes and without periodontitis. The samples were collected in an Eppendorf tube passively. The samples were stored in -20 until needed. Statistics statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 23.0, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.Released 2015). The one-way ANOVA with the Tukey HSD post hoc test was used. The test was done to compare the groups and p>0.05 was considered significant. Results: The salivary pH values of subjects in group 1 ranged from 7.0 to 7.5 with a mean of 7.3 +/- 0.08. Similarly, salivary pH values of subjects in group 2 ranged from 5.5 to 7.0 with a mean of 6.0 +/- 0.43, and salivary pH values of subjects in group 3 ranged from 6.5 to 7.5 with a mean of 6.9 +/- 0.27. The difference in mean ph value between group 1, group 2, group 3 was highly significant (p>0.05) Conclusion: The present study concludes that diabetic patients with periodontitis have reduced pH when compared to patients without periodontitis. Diabetic Mellitus has been consistently documented to be associated with altered salivary composition and function which disrupts the homeostasis of the oral cavity. This predisposes them to various oral ailments including dental caries and periodontitis.