Comparison of Salivary Antioxidants in Healthy Smoking and Non-smoking Men

Background: Tobacco use is known as a serious global public health problem, and is alsoan important risk factor for oral diseases. Saliva is the first biological medium encountered during inhalation of cigarette smoke. Therefore, the mainaim of this study was to compare the levels of salivary antioxidants betweenhealthy smoking and non-smoking men.Methods: Unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from 80 men. Forty subjects were smokers with a daily consumption of 20 cigarettes for at least 10years and 40 subjects were non-smokers. The salivary levels of uric acid,superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and peroxidase were measured and compared between studied groups.Results: The mean levels of salivary superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase,and peroxidase were significantly lower in smokers than non-smokers. Therewas no statistically significant difference in the salivary uric acid levelbetween smokers and non-smokers.Conclusions:Measurement of antioxidant agents in human saliva might be useful for estimating the level of oxidative stress caused by cigarette smoke