A critical review on the association of hyposalivation and dental caries in children and adolescents

Aline Dos Santos Letieri; Walter Luiz Siqueira; Monique Solon-de-Mello; Daniele Masterson; Liana Bastos Freitas-Fernandes; Ana Paula Valente; Ivete Pomarico Ribeiro de Souza; Tatiana Kelly da Silva Fidalgo; Lucianne Cople Maia

doi:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2022.105545

A critical review on the association of hyposalivation and dental caries in children and adolescents

Arch Oral Biol. 2022 Dec:144:105545. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2022.105545. Epub 2022 Sep 17.

Authors

Aline Dos Santos Letieri¹, Walter Luiz Siqueira², Monique Solon-de-Mello³, Daniele Masterson⁴, Liana Bastos Freitas-Fernandes¹, Ana Paula Valente⁵, Ivete Pomarico Ribeiro de Souza⁶, Tatiana Kelly da Silva Fidalgo⁷, Lucianne Cople Maia¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
² College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
³ School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
⁴ Center of Health Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
⁵ National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - CENABIO, Medical Biochemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
⁶ Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: pomarico@gmail.com.
⁷ Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: tatianaksfidalgo@gmail.com.

PMID: 36209541
DOI: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2022.105545

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this critical review is to assess if children and adolescents with hyposalivation are more affected by dental caries than those with normal flow rate.

Design: A literature search was performed using keywords and MeSH terms related to hyposalivation and dental caries in the Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, LILACS/BBO databases and in gray literature without language or date restrictions until March 2022. Observational studies that accessed the presence of dental caries in patients up to 18 years-old with hyposalivation and compared with a control group (normal salivation rate) were considered eligible. The results from search were imported to EndNote Web, where duplicates were removed followed by title/abstract and full text analysis.

Results: A total of 12,236 non-duplicated studies were found and 14 fulfilled the criteria and were included in the present review, 9 cross-sectional and 5 cohorts. Stimulated salivary flow rates were assessed in 3644 participants, aged 3-17 years. Three cohort and three cross-sectional studies observed association between low salivary flow rates and the presence of dental caries, while the other 9 included articles did not verify this association. However, the absence of a standard criteria for the hyposalivation classification in young patients was observed and brough light to this important limitation among the studies.

Conclusion: The salivary flow rate estimation for caries risk assessment must be the target of further studies to make possible and reliable, homogeneous, and unbiasedly assessment of the association between hyposalivation and dental caries in young patients.

Keywords: Adolescent; Children; Dental caries; Hyposalivation; Saliva.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dental Caries*
Humans
Observational Studies as Topic
Xerostomia*