Salivary levels of Streptococcus mutans and lactobacilli and dental caries experiences in a US adolescent population

Abstract

Dental caries exams and saliva samples were obtained from 541 adolescents, aged 10-15, initially and after 17 months as part of a 3-yr longitudinal study investigating the relationships of dietary intakes, specific microorganisms in saliva, and the prevalence and incidence of dental caries. The mean DMFS score detected in these subjects initially was 4.61, and they developed an average of 1.38 new DMFS during the first 17-month period. Initially, S. mutans and lactobacilli were detected in 64% and 56% of these subjects, respectively. Subjects with low levels of S. mutans and lactobacilli had significantly lower initial DMFS scores and developed significantly fewer new DMFS than subjects with high counts. The predictive values of a positive result for S. mutans or lactobacilli assays were low (31% and 39%), but those for a negative result were high (81% and 84%).

Estudo da freqüência de cárie e fatores associados no diabetes mellitus tipo 1

“…A placa bacteriana desempenha papel essencial no desenvolvimento da cárie e certos agentes estão mais freqüentemente envolvidos. Estudos em jovens não-diabéticos mostraram que aqueles com níveis baixos de estreptococos mutans e lactobacilos apresentavam menor número de cáries (26)(27)(28)(29)(30). No entanto, nos jovens diabéticos, esta relação não é clara (19,20,31), e a comparação da quantificação destas bactérias entre portadores ou não da doença também não é conclusiva (12)(13)(14)(15).…”

Further statistics in dentistry Part 9: Bayesian statistics

“…A 17-month longitudinal study (Kingman et al, 1988) 11 of 541 US adolescents initially aged 10-15 years was conducted with a view to using the child's baseline level of lactobacilli in saliva as a screening test for children at high risk of developing caries. A bacterial level of lactobacilli >10 5 was regarded as a positive test result and this was compared with the child's caries increment after 17 months, where at least three new lesions in the period were recorded as a positive disease result.…”

Re-evaluation of methods to identify individuals with increased risk of caries

“…Forest plots presenting estimates of sensitivity and specificity and corresponding 95% CI of salivary mutans streptococci with thresholds from >100 to >1 000 000 CFU/ml. Forest plots based on data presented in the study by Kingman et al, (1988). Referencestandard (caries increment) thresholds were DMFS >0, DMFS >1, DMFS >2 for each index test threshold value of CFU/ml, in ascending order.…”

“…It is unclear whether mutans streptococci were identified by their characteristic CFU-morphology as no study reported criteria for this. In only two studies (Petti & Hausen, 2000;Kingman et al, 1988) the growth of mutans streptococci was confirmed by biochemical testing. Figure 8 presents recruited, withdrawn, and included adolescents in study IV.…”

“…Only two studies (Petti & Hausen, 2000;Kingman et al, 1988) presented the amount of saliva sampled. Information to ascertain possible detection levels of microbiota for the method implemented was insufficient across all studies.…”