Saliva Test for Caries Risk

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DESCRIPTION: Ultimately, the goal of this project is to produce a simple, non-invasive saliva test, which is able to assess caries risk. Within the Dental community, there is a trend to include prevention in the treatment plan. The test facilitates this move by offering the Dental professional, and ultimately the patient, the tool to determine the risk for caries development. Those patients who are identified as high or medium risk, can then be targeted for a personalized prevention program. Past caries experience, DFS (number of decayed and filled tooth surfaces) has been the best predictor for risk level of future caries development; however, it is an unreliable measure. There is need for a test that provides standard identification criteria and leads to an accurate diagnosis of caries risk through childhood and young adulthood. Preliminary studies showed a strong correlation between MUC7 mucin in saliva and DFS. The completed Phase I study included more than 100 children and young adults, extending correlations to individual caries experience in children 7-9 years old. A new set of predictors was identified that are more universal than mucins alone. Lectin assays revealed carbohydrate moieties, some of which are blood group antigen-like, that resulted in correlations with DFS in whole, unfractionated saliva that are even more precise than with mucin alone. The methods for assessing the levels of the newest predictors for caries risk are easier and less cumbersome than for mucin quantitation, thus opening opportunities to develop very simple, reliable tests that will be easy to commercialize. The goal of the Phase II Study is to produce working models of these tests, which use the relevant technology for each application. Also during Phase II, the data base will be increased by collecting samples from additional young adults and children expanding to different ages, and races or ethnicities, with the goal of further "universalizing" the test. In addition to a chair-side test that can be used by the Dental professional, the strip test could have world-wide impact on oral health by targeting those in most need where resources are limited.