Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stomatol. May 20, 2015; 4(2): 56-71
Published online May 20, 2015. doi: 10.5321/wjs.v4.i2.56
Salivary gland disorders: A comprehensive review
Shashikala Krishnamurthy, Subash Beloor Vasudeva, Sandhya Vijayasarathy
Shashikala Krishnamurthy, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, DAPMRV Dental College, Bangalore 560078, India
Subash Beloor Vasudeva, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, DAPMRV Dental College, Bangalore 560078, India
Sandhya Vijayasarathy, Department of Biotechnology, PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore 560085, India
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Shashikala Krishnamurthy, Professor and Head, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, DAPMRV Dental College, 24th Main, 1st Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore 560078, India. shashbang2007@rediffmail.com
Telephone: +91-80-22445754 Fax: +91-80-26658411
Received: December 5, 2014
Peer-review started: December 6, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: March 19, 2015
Accepted: April 10, 2015
Article in press: April 12, 2015
Published online: May 20, 2015
Abstract

Salivary glands are complex in nature. They could be either tubulo acinar, merocrine or exocrine glands secreting mainly saliva. Salivary gland is one of the main soft tissue structures in the maxillofacial area. Saliva is a clear, slightly acidic muco serous fluid that coats the teeth, mucosa and thereby helps to create and maintain a healthy environment in the oral cavity. Salivary glands may be affected by a number of diseases: local and systemic and the prevalence of salivary gland diseases depend on various etiological factors. The glands may be infected by viral, bacterial, rarely fungal or its ductal obstruction which may cause painful swelling or obstruction, affecting their functions. The salivary gland may also be affected by a various benign and malignant tumours. This review article briefly describes about the various salivary gland disorders, diagnostic techniques and their management including the recent advances and the future perspective.

Keywords: Salivary gland disorders, Xerostomia, Salivary biomarker, Salivary diagnostics, Exocrine glands

Core tip: The aim of this article was to analyse detailed aspects of various salivary gland disorders, their diagnostic and therapeutic advances in the prevention and management of salivary gland diseases of the oral cavity, including the recent developments and their future perspective.