Comparison of amount of unstimulated saliva in parotid, submandibular and sublingual salivary glands in diabetic patients and healthy subjects

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease which has many somatic complications for the patients. One of these complications is xerostomia. According to controversy about amount of saliva in diabetic patients the aim of this study was to compare the amount of un-stimulated saliva in parotid, submandibular and sublingual between type II controlled diabetic patients with healthy subjects. Subjects and In this case-control study, 75 type II diabetic patients and 75 healthy subjects were randomly recruited. The age range of both groups was 30 to 65 years. Salivary tests were done between 9–11 a.m. The selected subjects had no past medical history (apart from diabetes in case group), no previous use of medications and no history of depression as confirmed by hospital anxiety and depression test were selected. After isolation and drying of ducts by hydrophilic papers, we measured the quantity of saliva during 30 seconds at first for parotid glands and the submandibular and sublingual gland on both sides. Data were analyzed by t-test. The amount of unstimulated saliva of parotid and both submandibular and sub lingual salivary glands in diabetic patients was 0.019 and 0.025 ml/min respectively. The amount of unstimulated saliva of parotid and both submandibular and sublingual salivary glands in healthy subjects was 0.02 and 0.029 ml/min respectively. There was not significant differences between amounts of unstimulated saliva in parotid salivary glands and submandibular and sublingual in two groups. (P = 0.217 and P = 0.069 respectively). This research showed that amount of un-stimulated saliva was same in controlled diabetic patients and healthy subjects.