Fibronectin levels of unstimulated saliva from naval recruits with and without chronic inflammatory periodontal disease.

Past studies have suggested that gingival crevicular fluid is produced more readily in persons with severe periodontal diseases than in persons with healthy gingivae. In this study, salivary fibronectin was selected as an index of total gingival crevicular fluid flow. Our purpose was to determine whether a relationship could be found between salivary fibronectin level and periodontal disease status. Unstimulated saliva was collected from 20 healthy and 20 periodontally-diseased naval recruits. The periodontally-diseased subjects included 10 with localized juvenile periodontitis and 10 with moderate to severe periodontitis. Mean subject ages and salivary flow rates were similar for the 2 groups. Although 2 of the periodontally-diseased subjects showed unusually high fibronectin levels, the mean level for the remaining 18 subjects did not differ significantly from the mean of the healthy group, and no association of periodontal disease status with salivary fibronectin content was seen. Consequently, it was not evident from salivary fibronectin levels that the content of gingival crevicular fluid in unstimulated whole saliva differed significantly for persons with or without severe periodontal disease, except possibly for extreme cases of disease.