:ABSTRACT
Background: Many factors are playing major roles in the alterations of diabetic salivary secretion rate and saliva composi-tion. But all these factors are correlating to the type of saliva examined (whole or parotid, resting or stimulated).Objective: This study tried to define the change of sodium, potassium, protein, and amylase variations in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients.  Design: The clinical data were registered for 45 (30 men and 15 women, 30.7 ± 5.6 yr) diabetic patients including the compli-cations as retinopathy, nephropathy, peripheral vascular, neuropathy, and dermatologic problems. Materials and Methods: The salivary secretion, glucose and the compliant of xerostomia were estimated. Sodium, potassium, protein, and amylase were specifically measured in different saliva types (whole or parotid, resting or stimulated). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS and Evalkit programs. Results: Patients with controlled insulin dose have not shown any significant difference of the salivary secretion rate for patients complained of dry mouth and others do not complained. Noteworthy, an increasing of glucose, potassium and total pro-tein were registered for patients whole saliva and parotid saliva.  Conclusions: Salivary glands in diabetes did not synthesize proteins and no response change to stimulation was found between controls and diabetics