What is the saliva like....

[Tkald]

in your babes mouth when they have caries? My 22 month old who has had decay since she was 18 months has a lot of saliva and it seems very thick/foamy/sticky. When she opens her mouth, I can see the stringiness of the saliva. Could this have something to do with the caries? Anyone else see this? I just thought about the link the other day when I compared mine with hers. Hope this makes sense!

[kaPOW!]

Hm. I always think of foamy or sticky spit as not enough spit... weird.

I've heard that the more saliva the better... people with drier mouths are more prone towards cavities. But, quality of saliva is going to make a difference as well. The only test I know of for that is a ph test. But that wouldn't test for mineral content or things like that.... you can also get a caries susceptibility test, which I think tests for acidity/ph... not really sure. It's debated whether or not it's accurate. You can also have spit tested for bacteria counts/types. But I haven't ever tried that.

Anyway. My husband has a TON of saliva, more than I ever thought was humanly possible (as in, he drools sometimes, has to pause to swallow when he's talking, etc...) and he has no cavities. I have what I would call normal amounts, and I have tons (however, I breath through my mouth at night which dries my mouth out), and I have plenty of cavities. My son has normal saliva and cavities. HTH.