Objective This study was intended to determine the salivary protein factors related to adult periodontitis. Methods Twenty-five patientswith adult periodontitis (APgroup) and twenty-five normal controls (NC group, 25) were adopted in the study. Salivary protein composition in unstimulated whole saliva samples obtained before and after basic treatmentwas ana- lyzed by SDS-PAGE.Results The volume of proteins with 66 kD, 18 kD, 15 kD, 13 kD in AP group before treatmentwere all remarkably higher than those in NC group. In addition, 51 kD, 34 kD, 19 kD, 17 kD protein bands were more frequently observed in AP group by comparison with NC group. However, after initial therapy, all the variables mentioned above decreased remarkably.Conclusion The results demonstrated that protein bands with 18 kD, 15 kD, 13 kD might be closely related to the occurrence and recovery of periodontitis, and serum-derived proteins in saliva increased in patients with adult periodontitis.