title: Relations between early dental calculus production and calcium and phosphate parameters of salivary fractions.
abstract: A pilot study was carried out to obtain an idea of the strength of the relations between early mandibular calculus production in humans and amounts and concentrations of bound calcium and phosphate in three salivary fractions. The salivary fractions were: (1) the spontaneous precipitate from incubated whole saliva, (2) the spontaneous precipitate from incubated centrifugal (20,000 X g) saliva supernatant and (3) the fresh centrifugal saliva sediment. Strong and highly significant correlations were found for the amount and concentration of calcium in the fresh sediment and whole saliva precipitate fractions. Although the correlations for the calcium parameters of the saliva supernatant precipitate were not significant, there were significant differences in these parameters between low and high calculus formers as determined by Student's t test. Relations between calculus production and amount and concentration of phosphate were weaker and not significant for all fractions. The data suggest that the amount or concentration of calcium in fresh saliva sediment is an important determinant of early mandibular calculus production.
mesh_terms: D002118:Calcium / Q000032:analysis*; D003728:Dental Calculus / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis*; D012463:Saliva / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D002118:Calcium