THE IMMEDIATE TERM EFFECT OF CHEWING MESWAK (SAL VADORA PERSICA) ON FLOW RATE AND PH OF WHOLE SALIVA

Abstract

chewing of two differently sized commercially available meswak might have on flow rate and pH of whole saliva. Twenty subjects participated in this study. They were distributed into two groups (A and B). Subjects in both groups A and B were asked to first chew on either a sized #1 or #2 cotton roll followed by the chewing of an equivalent sized piece of meswak (approximately 5 mm. and 10 mm. diameter) respectively. For subjects in group A, no differences in mean flow rate was seen after both the chewing regimes. In group B however, the increase in mean flow rate after the chewing of meswak compared to cotton roll was statistically significant at p < 0.05. Statistically significant lower values for pH were registered after the chewing of meswak compared to cotton roll in both groups A and B at p<0.05 and p<O.OI respectively. Results of this study suggest that plants used as chewing sticks may have the potential of both increasing the flow rate and reducing the pH of saliva. Further studies have to be carried out to ascertain the therapeutic benefits of using meswak as an anti-plaque agent.