Identifying enzyme activities within human saliva which are relevant to dental resin composite biodegradation.

Esterase activities similar to those of cholesterol and pseudocholine esterases (CE and PCE, respectively) have been detected within whole human saliva. Since commercial CE has been shown to possess distinct activity relative to PCE for select components in dental composites, it is hypothesized that esterases isolated from human saliva will also show selectivity towards specific monomer elements within the composites. The objective of this work was to carry out the isolation of these activities from whole human saliva and study their individual effects on resin monomers such as Bis-phenyl glycidyl dimethacrylate (aromatic structure) and triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (hydrophilic structure), and on cured composites containing the latter monomers.