Introduction Obstructive salivary gland disease is a frequently encountered clinical entity that can present to various health practitioners. Obstructive sialadenitis can lead to recurrent infections and debilitating quality-of-life issues.

Objective There is a paucity of published data regarding obstructive salivary disorders among the multiracial Asian population. The present study aimed to determine the demographic pattern and risk factors of obstructive salivary gland disorders with the goal of better management of this condition.

Methods A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary institution over a period of 5 years.

Results A total of 256 (9.84 for every 1,000) patients were found to have salivary disorders, 10% of who were diagnosed to have obstructive disorder. Among the obstructive salivary disorders, 76% had sialolithiasis, 19% had recurrent parotitis, and 1 patient had chronic sialadenitis. We observed a small female preponderance for obstructive salivary disorders. This study revealed that smoking is a significant risk factor (p = 0.041; prevalence ratio = 2.54, 95% confidence interval 1.12–5.78), and smokers were 2.5 times more likely to develop obstructive salivary disorders. There was no statistical correlation between the prevalence and other risk factors like infection, dehydration, intake of medications, history of diabetes mellitus, radiotherapy, and autoimmune disorders.

Conclusion Our study results demonstrated that the prevalence of obstructive salivary gland disorders was 0.1%. This study provided a better understanding of the prevalence and risk factors of obstructive salivary disorders, which facilitate timely management and improves quality of life.

Not applicable.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the national research committee of our institution (Medical Research Ethics Committee [MREC] ID NO:2019611–7508) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

All relevant data are within the paper.

Received: 30 January 2023

Accepted: 31 March 2024

Article published online:
25 October 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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