Stimulated saliva flow rate patterns in children: A six-year longitudinal study

Objective d out whether the stimulated saliva flow rate (SSFR) is a variable and unpredictable characteristic as healthy children grow-up. year-old school children (53 boys and 57 girls) were recruited to measure their SSFR in mL/min. Paraffin-stimulated saliva was collected from each child at baseline and once annually, over six years. Forty-four boys and 46 girls remained in the cohort (dropout rate 18%). Cluster analysis was applied to evaluate the natural grouping of individuals according to their SSFR. Partition analysis was applied to calculate the SSFR cut-off value to predict a childʹs salivation trend. s r analysis revealed that as they grew-up these children consistently showed one of three different SSFR patterns. The cut-off values to predict a childʹs salivation trend were 1.76 mL/min for the high SSFR cluster, and 0.5 mL/min for the low SSFR cluster. sions findings indicate that a high or low SSFR is a constant individual trait in children.