Abstract
Reduced salivation and changes in the viscosity of saliva were examined in relation to oral dysthesia. The study was conducted on 62 patients visiting our hospital between April, 2003 and March, 2004, who complained of rasping or sticky feelings in the mouth, tongue pain and other such disorders without any clear organic cause, did not appear to suffer from burning mouth syndrome or neuropathic pain, and did not meet the standards for depression, integration disorder syndrome etc. The patients ranged in age from 32 to 84 years with and average of 64.6 years. Twenty-five were male and 37 female.
It was found that salivation in these patients was greatly reduced to much the same level as occurs in Sjogren's Syndrome. By Mann-Whitney test, the viscosity of saliva produced under stimulation was, for each age group, substantially lower than in healthy subjects without reduced salivary secretion functions who did not complain of subjective feelings of drying, rasping or stickiness in the mouth.
It was concluded that reduced salivary secretion and viscosity may contribute to oral dysthesia.
