ANTIMICROBIAL FUNCTION OF HUMAN SALIVA - HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR ORALHEALTH

Human saliva contains a number of physical, physicochemical, and chemi cal agents thai protect oral tissues against noxious compounds, in par ticular those produced by various microorganisms. Among such protectiv e factors, the flushing effect of saliva flow is the most important on e, not only because it so effectively removes exogenous and endogenous microorganisms and their products into the gut but also because a ste ady supply of saliva guarantees continuous presence of both non-immune and immune factors in the mouth, ii great number of studies with cont roversial results have been published regarding various individual age nts and their possible association to oral health, particularly to den tal caries. It appears that no single chemical agent is far more impor tant than the others. For example, patients with selective IgA deficie ncy have normal levels of non-immune defense factors and often display a compensatory increase in the other immunoglobulin isotypes, The con certed action of all agents in whole saliva, both saliva- and serum-de rived, provides a multifunctional protective network that is collapsed only if salivary flow rate is substantially reduced. In this mixture of defense factors, many show additive or even synergistic interaction s against oral pathogens. Increased knowledge of the molecular functio ns of various agents has made it possible to prepare oral hygiene prod ucts that include host-derived antimicrobial agents instead of synthet ic agents. Although the clinical efficacy of such products is still un satisfactory and poorly described, new technologies, for example in th e production of specific antibodies against oral pathogens, may consid erably improve the antimicrobial power of these products.