Comparing Serum and Salivary Levels of Vitamin D in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis and Healthy Individuals

Statement of the problem: recurrent aphthous stomatitis (ras) is the most prevalent ulcerative condition of the oral mucosa. many studies have emphasized on immunologic factors as the reason of inducing ras; however, the exact etio-logic cause of ras has not been identified yet. vitamin d has an endocrine func-tion and regulatory effects on the immune system. it has potential therapeutic effects on autoimmune diseases, psoriasis, and neoplasms. vitamin d deficiency has been detected in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arteritis. purpose: the aim of the present study was to compare the serum and salivary levels of vitamin d in patients with ras and healthy individuals. materials and method: in this cross sectional study, patients with ras, refer- ring to the department of oral medicine, tabriz faculty of dentistry, were eval-uated after taking medical history, clinical examinations, and completing an in-formed consent form. the serum and salivary vitamin d levels were compared between case (n=26) and control (n=26) groups. results: the mean serum vitamin d levels in the case and control groups were 33.0.7±12.41 and 50.89±9.30 (ng/dl), respectively, with a statistically significant difference (p< 0.001). on the other hand, the mean salivary vitamin d levels in the case and control groups were 17.36± 8.01 and 20.79±6.31 (ng/dl), respec-tively, with no statistically significant difference (p= 0.09). in addition, the corre- lation between the serum and salivary levels of vitamin d was 56%, being statis-tically significant (p< 0.001). conclusion: the serum levels of vitamin d in patients with ras were signifi-cantly less than that in healthy individuals; however, there were no significant differences in salivary vitamin d levels between patients with ras and healthy individuals. in addition, there was a significant and positive correlation between serum and salivary levels of vitamin d in all patients.