Salivary amylase... Is it bad?

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I'm curious to know if salivary amylase is more harmful than good. Since it requires higher pH, it only seems to have a small effect on starches since the HCL in our stomachs makes it useless. Pancreatic amylase is important and seems to be the majority of what breaks down starches. However, starches that aren't fully consumed would be converted down to disaccharides which then would make them easily fermentable by bacteria of the mouth causing tooth decay. I'm probably off on this thinking, but I'm interested to know what others have to say.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Huh? Just wondering why in the world would you want to rate a naturally occurring physiological secretion as "good" or "bad"? For what purpose? Everything's part of a complex design/mechanism. If something goes out of kilter, there are systemic consequences.

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Probably not the best choice of words, but I'm looking for the pros of this specific enzyme. Its function is only for starch hydrolysis, which is extremely limited due to the acidity of gastric juice in our stomachs. When the conditions improve due to raising of pH from pancreatic juice we are given pancreatic amylase. Does salivary amylase actually serve a purpose, and my thinking would be inhibition of salivary amylase might have higher pros than cons, and could decrease poor dental health that could improve lives of many people?

I'm only a prenursing student, and my thinking could be completely off, but I'm just curious and thought I'd seek out any ideas on the subject.

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Oh and the basis for my opinions on this matter is related to the lactase enzyme. Lactose intolerance in oversimplistic terms that may be wrong is due to evolutionary changes in our diets. People who do not have the production of the enzyme do not have systemic consequences other than side effects of the body trying to rid lactose. Perhaps we no longer need this enzyme and it may be doing more bad than good.

I'm just trying to learn to add to what I have gone over in my prereqs. I apologize if this sounds really stupid.

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hey, i actually think this topic is pretty interesting.... salivary amylase starts carbs break down in the mouth by turning carbs into maltose then it goes down and does it thing to further break down maltose in stomach...if we skip this simple step of carb --> maltose who knows how it would effect of physiology? its always good to think out of the box.. what if questions are great?

as for the teeth decay i read in my micro class that dextran cements bacteria to tooth and lactic acid actually decays the tooth. Any acid that was developed in mouth from consuming sugars carbs (i know they are sugars too lol) can be washed away with saliva and food after eating. Many people on consistent medication which causes them dry mouth often get tooth decays more then anyone else...i think salivary amylase is a pro!

I actually just finish my pre reqs and was scared i would forgot all these things. Thanks for the topic! Feel free to things some info my way : )

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I like to ask questions to try and see how others view the topic. Some of the information I learned is a bit different than yours.

What I learned is that there is no starch hydrolysis or maltose hydrolysis in the stomach. This is because the salivary amylase enzyme is denatured by the HCL of gastric juices of the stomach. The majority of starch hydrolysis is by pancreatic amylase and maltose hydrolysis is by maltase that are both in pancreatic juice which is secreted into the duodenum. Very little dietary breakdown of starch is actually by salivary amylase.

And here my memory gets bad... Dextran is created mainly by S. mutans by sucrose, which wouldn't relate to salivary amylase, however, S. mutans can ferment maltose which would mainly be in the mouth by salivary amylase.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

The real question is: What could you possibly DO about it? And why?

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I was reading an article about how teas have an inhibition on salivary and Streptococcal amylase which could lead to stopping slow release fermentation by stopping starch hydrolyse. I found it interesting, and if there was a way to provide the same result on a wider scale perhaps we could further the decrease in tooth decay.

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