Abstract:
Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the salivary Superoxide dismutase (mU/L) level among stage one
patients of Oral sub mucous fibrosis and healthy controls.
Study Design and Setting: It was a comparative cross sectional study design conducted at Outpatient clinic of Dental
Department at Ziauddin University Hospital from January 2012 till December 2013.
Methodology: Eighty histo-pathologically confirmed patients of clinical stage one Oral Sub mucosal fibrosis (OSMF) and
eighty healthy controls were matched for age and gender to recruit in the study. Socio demographic information (i.e. age,
gender, ethnicity, education and occupation), oral health status, measurement of mouth opening (mm) and Superoxide
dismutase (mU/L) were recorded. The study was conducted after the approval granted from the ethical review committee
of Ziauddin University Hospital. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21 (IBM).
Result: The standard mean (+/-SD) of Superoxide dismutase (mU/L) in both groups was 4.99 (+/-2.18). The mean of
Superoxide dismutase (mU/L) in confirmed cases of oral sub mucosal fibrosis was 3.02 (+/-0.44) which was significantly
lower as compared to the control group which was 6.96(+/-1.24) and the calculated p value was 0.001.The strong positive
correlation was identified in mouth opening (mm) and superoxide dismutase (0.842).
Conclusion: It was concluded that the levels of salivary superoxide dismutase was significantly lower in the sample of
OSMF and lower levels of superoxide dismutase (mU/L) was the indication of decrease in mouth opening among the cases
of OSMF. Therefore, salivary superoxide dismutase can be used as a biomarker for the early detection as well as successful
treatment of OSMF
