The Impact of Salivary pH Value and Dental Caries Index on Periodontal Status among Adult Age Groups of Patients from Aseer Region, Saudi Arabia

Background: The patients’ age is considered a modified risk factor that causes periodontal disease, dental caries, and their development. Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of salivary pH value and dental caries index on periodontal status among adult age groups of patients from Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis carried out in the college of dentistry, King Khalid University on 750 adult patients (400 males and 350 females). The adults patients were divided into three equal groups according to the patients’ age: group I (20 - 30 years), group II (31 - 40 years), and group III (41 - 50 years). Plaque index (PLI), gingival index (GI), clinical attachment loss (CAL), and the dental caries index (DMFT) recorded as well as salivary pH. All findings collected, then analyzed by an ANOVA test and the t-test. A p-value at <0.05 was considered a statistical significance level. Results: The clinical findings of the current study showed that there were statistically significant differences in the patients’ age of both males and females. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences in GI. On the other hand, there were highly statistically significant differences in PLI and DMFS, but there were no significant differences in CAL of both males and females Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences in salivary pH. Conclusion: We concluded that DMFT Index correlated to periodontal and oral health status and, it increased with the progression of the patient’s age and can be used in the epidemiological evaluation of periodontal and oral health status.