Saliva Protection and Transmissible Diseases

Saliva Protection and Transmissible Diseases provides a review of saliva protection, raising debate on micro-organisms potentially transmissible in saliva, and also considering the evidence on diseases that may be transmitted by kissing. Saliva is a complex body fluid essential to health, especially mastication, swallowing and speech, and hyposalivation can lead to dysfunction and even infection. More serious pathogens, such as herpes viruses and papillomaviruses can be conveyed by kissing, as can potentially lethal micro-organisms present in some saliva, such as meningococci, fungal organisms and Ebola viruses.Stipulates the defensive roles of saliva, an important topic not previously reviewed in-depth in literatureProvides awareness that saliva also transmits infectious agents that can produce serious or even lethal diseasesGives understanding that kissing may be an at-risk practice

Professor Scully was a Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Health-General Health; King James IV Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Emeritus Professor, University College London (UCL). He was a Specialist in Oral Medicine, in Special Care Dentistry and in Oral Surgery. He was a Founder member of European Association for Oral Medicine and a Founder member of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He has the distinction of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) and he has been awarded several University Doctorates (Athens, Granada, Helsinki, Pretoria, Santiago de Compostela). Professor Scully was an Editor of Oral Diseases, and Medicina Oral Cirugía Oral Patología Bucal Associate Editor and was on the Editorial Boards of Acta-Oto-Laryngologica and Dental Update. He founded and was Editor of Oral Oncology. Professor Scully has presented continuing education programmes throughout the world and has published over 1000 scholarly works and 45 books (34 authored and 11 edited).Jacobo Limeres graduated in Dentistry at the Santiago de Compostela University (USC) and got the PhD degree afterwards. He is the Director of the Stomatology Department of the School of Medicine and Dentistry (USC). Also he is the Coordinator of the Exchange Program for Dental Studies in the USC and the Coordinator of the Program for Dental Care of severely handicapped patients, developed in the Special Needs Unit of the USC in agreement with the Galician Healthcare Service. He is the Co-director of the Postgraduate course, Master in Dentistry for Medically compromised patients at the USC and currently is the President of the Spanish Society of Dentistry for Handicapped and Special Needs Patients. He is also member of the council of the International Association for Disability and Oral Health (iADH). He has written about 70 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored several books.Pedro Diz Dios is qualified in Medicine and is a Specialist in Stomatology at Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). He trained in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Freiburg University Hospital (Germany), gaining his Doctor of Philosophy PhD (Freiburg University). He is Professor, Consultant and Head of the Special Needs Unit, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Santiago de Compostela University. He was Director of the Stomatology Department and he is Director of the Master-s Program on "Dental management of patients with systemic diseases at the Santiago de Compostela University. He is a Council member of the International Association for Disability and Oral Health (IADH). He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the UCL-Eastman Dental Institute (London). He is Editor in Chief of Special Care in Dentistry, Associate Editor of Oral Diseases Journal, Medicina Oral Cirugía Oral y Patología Bucal, and Journal of Oral and Experimental Dentistry, as well as an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Disability and Oral Health. He has written about 200 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored several books.