Relationship between Salivary Flow Rates and the Amount of Candida in Saliva in Smokers

Smoking is one of the predisposing factors for oral candidiasis. The mechanism is possibly caused by chemical substances in cigarettes that can provide nutritionS for candida, local changes in epithelium that which leads to candida colonization, decreased antibodies in saliva and decreased salivary flow rates. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between salivary flow rates and the amount of Candida in smoker's saliva. This research was an observational analytic with cross sectional design. The samples consist of 40 healthy smokers with age range between 20-45 years. The method used to collect unstimulated salivary is spitting method. Quantity of candida is counted using colony counter and ISO 7218 formula. Data was analyzed by Anova and Pearson correlation. The result showed that the difference of average candida in every group of salivary flow rates was not significant (p=0.852). Pearson correlation analysis confirmed that correlation were in the weak category (close to 0) with value of significance 0.308. As conclusion, salivary flow rates didn't have significant effect toward amount of candida in the smoker's saliva.