Sustenance of salivary response in human population and suggestions for elderly denture wearer: An in vivo study

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to confirm whether psychic stimulation of salivation occurs in human also and to formulate certain guidelines for complete denture wearers. Material and Methods: Armamentarium used for this study includes preweighed cotton packets, two glass beakers, stopwatch, electronic digital balance, cotton tweezers, and hot fresh snacks. After this, the mopping protocol for the participants was made, and each participant was told to follow the instructions for all the 6 days of observations. The collected data of salivary flow as per the protocol were tabulated in terms of increase in cotton weight for all the steps. Similar tables were prepared for all the forty participants. As the sample size was small, a nonparametric analytical plan was adopted. Wilcoxon signed-rank test (nonparametric variant of paired t-test) and Mann–Whitney U-test (nonparametric variant of Student's t-test) were used. Results: For baseline secretions (day 1 without thought of food) values for all steps were overall higher in males, mean value is 2.99 ± 1.14 g as compared to 2.08 ± 0.82 g for females for Step 1 (0 – 3)mts, in males as compared to in females for Step 5(12 – 15)mts. Overall, a significant difference between two genders was observed for baseline flow during all the steps except for Step 5 (P < 0.05) with males showing significantly higher flow as compared to females. It was observed that there was a significant difference between baseline and stimulated salivary flow in all the participants on all the days of observation, except for the Step 4 and 5 where it was near to baseline. Conclusions: The findings generally suggest that yes there is an enhancement of salivary flow with the thought of food, but it lasts for 6–9 min after which it turns to base level.

Keywords

• Conditioned reflex
• salivary flow
• salivary response