Subjective Score for Oral Mouth Dryness (SSOD)

Background: Due to the obvious adverse effect of a reduced flow rate of Salivary on a person's quality of life and oral health, it has been proposed that salivary function testing be included in routine dental examinations. To design a score that semi-quantitatively assesses the degree to which patients are affected by their dry mouth condition and to determine whether this SSOD correlates with different measures of dryness. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2021 - January 2022. Two questionnaires were designed: (a) SSOD2 consisted of 5 questions about the severity of dry-mouth and any psychological effect on the patient. (b) SSOD1 contained score from 0-10 on assessment of the patient after clarification. The surveys were issued via interview to 90 control subjects and 90 patients who had historically been examined and shown by sialometry. Results: One-way ANOVAs demonstrated that the two SSOD indices showed a highly significant difference between dry mouth patients and controls (mean value +/- SEM for SSOD1 in patients was 6 +/- 0.31 and in controls was 0.3 +/- 0.07) and values were high and correlated, with a coefficient of 0.88 (p<0.001). In patients with dry-mouth, the indices were inversely correlated with UWM flow rate of salivary and MW; (SSOD1: -0.62 correlation coefficient; SSOD2: -0.55 correlation coefficient; p = .001). Conclusion: The two SSOD indices were significantly higher in patients with low UWM flow and can be used in the assessment and monitoring of dry mouth.