Impact of Secretor Status (AB Blood Type) in Relation to Caries Experience Related to Salivary Alkaline Phosphatase Among A Group of School Children

Background:About 80 percent of people are secretors of AB antigen. It has been proposed that secretion of these antigens into the saliva might be caries-preventive. So this study was conducted to determine the salivary secretor status of AB blood group in relation to experience and severity of dental caries on one hand, and salivary alkaline phosphatase related to dentition status on the other hand. Materials and methods: One hundred three primary school children were selected randomly for this study in Baghdad city; all of them were between six to eight years of age. Oral examination was performed, dental caries experience and severity was recorded, unstimulatedsalivary samples were collected for laboratory examination for the AB antigen and Alkaline Phosphatase. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Results:in the present study 36%of the children were found to be secretor for AB antigen in saliva. Dental caries in primary teeth represented by mean dmfs was lower among secretor than non-secretor group, concerning its grade the mean value of the two lowest grades of severity were higher among secretor than non secretor group while apposite results were found for the highest two grades of severity. The caries experience in permanent teeth represented by mean DMFs was higher among secretor children than non-secretor however the difference was not significant. The same results were found concerning D2 and D3 while apposite figure was found for the D1 grade of caries severity.Salivary alkaline phosphatase was non-significantly lower among secretor children than non secretor group. There werenon-significant inverse relation between the salivary alkaline phosphatase and caries experience in primary and permanent teeth in both secretors and nonsecretorsexcept the relation concerning Ds component of DMFs for the non-secretor group as the relation was in positive direction Conclusion: The secretor children had lower caries experience and severity. While the relation between salivary alkaline phosphatase and caries experience of primary and permanent teeth in both secretor and nonsecretor children were non-significant.