Introduction:The habit of smokeless tobacco chewing is one of the known risk factors for oral cancer among the residents of southeast of Iran. Most likely, the antioxidant defense system in dealing with free radicals induced paan and prevention of oral cancer is important. In this study, the activity of superoxide dismutase is compared in the saliva of paan consumers and non-consumers.

Methods:In this study , Unstimulated saliva of 87 subjects (47paan consumers and 40 non-consumers) who referred to the Oral Medicine Department of Dentistry School of Zahedan was collected. The activity of superoxide dismutase enzyme was measured by standard biochemical methods (Mc Cord and Fridovich) and the obtained data were analyzed by statistical software SPSS-15 through non-parametric Mann-Whitney test.

Results:The mean activity of superoxide dismutase was significantly higher in the paan consumers group( 4.4±1.6 u/mg ) compared to non-consumers (3.59±1.8 u/mg,p=0.027).

Conclusion:The results of this study demonstrate that consumption of paan leads to increased activity of salivary superoxide dismutase.