Patient`s with Sjögren’s syndrome（SS）are prone to the development of dental caries as a result of reduced salivary flow. As no studies to date have reported on the association between improved salivary flow in patients with SS and caries prevention, we conducted a retrospective study on the influence of salivary secretion on the number of decayed/missing/filled（DMF）teeth. This study involved a total of 165 patients with a mean observation period of 57.7±8.62 months. The results showed a significant negative correlation between the change in the number of missing teeth from baseline to end point and the mean stimulated whole salivary flow（SWSF）, which was based on the mean baseline and end point SWSF（r＝−0.155, P＝0.047）. In addition, an increase in the number of missing teeth in patients with a mean SWSF not exceeding 6 mL/10min was observed compared to patients with a mean SWSF of more than 6 mL/10min. Logistic regression analysis showed SWSF to be a risk factor for increased number of missing teeth（OR＝0.905, 95 ％ CI＝0.832–0.985, P＝0.021）. During the observation period, although SWSF increased between baseline and end point, increase in SWSF did not prevent an increase of DMF. As this study showed that SS patients were susceptible to missing teeth with no clear evidence of reduced number of DMF teeth associated with increased salivation, the results suggest that SS patients require all available caries prevention interventions, including
not only salivary secretagogue, but also topical measures such as fluoride, antimicrobials and non-fluoride re-mineralizing agents.
