E. Maheswari, R. Pradeep Kumar, I. Meignana Arumugham, D. Sri Sakthi

Abstract

Dental caries is the most common chronic disease of humankind. Dental caries development is considered to involve a triad of indispensable factors that can be concluded as bacteria in dental plaque, carbohydrates in the diet, and susceptible teeth. Saliva composition is an important factor in determining the prevalence of caries. For relative protection against dental cavities, salivary flow rate, buffer capacity, calcium, phosphate, and fluoride concentrations are essentials. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the existing literature on the evaluation of salivary flow rate, pH, calcium, total protein, buffering capacity, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level among caries-active and caries-free adolescence. Search strategy: The Data Bases of PubMed and Google Scholar were used. Selection criteria: A cross-sectional study evaluating salivary flow rate, pH, calcium, total protein, buffering capacity, and TAC among caries-free and caries-active adolescence was selected. The systematic search revealed a total of 3 publications from PubMed, seven from Google scholar, and which were scrutinized based on present inclusion and exclusion criteria. Five publications fulfilled all the inclusion criteria, and one publication was excluded from the review. Two studies used decayed missing filled teeth and decayed missing filled surfaces index for assessing caries increment. Among theincluded studies, one studies had a low risk of bias with level 2 evidence. Salivary calcium concentration values were found to be higher in caries-free group in two studies. In one study, total protein and total antioxidant values are higher in caries-active group except those in the 11–15-year-old girls group. In other study, there was increase in total protein and TAC in caries-active study participant of both age groups. No significant correlation between caries activity and salivary flow rate were established. With the available evidence, based on quality assessment and evidence level of selected articles, it can be concluded that salivary physiochemical properties differ in caries-active and caries-free individuals, and thus, salivary parameters influence the dental caries activity.