Abstract
The purpose of this 3-year prospective cohort study was to explore the relationship between an increase in dental caries and oral microbiome among Japanese university students. We analyzed 487 students who volunteered to receive oral examinations and answer baseline (2013) and follow-up (2016) questionnaires. Of these students, salivary samples were randomly collected from 55 students at follow-up and analyzed using next-generation sequencing. Students were divided into two groups: increased group (Δdecayed, missing, and filled teeth (ΔDMFT) score increased during the 3-year period) and non-increased group (ΔDMFT did not increase). Thirteen phyla, 21 classes, 32 orders, 48 families, 72 genera, and 156 species were identified. Microbial diversity in the increased group (n = 14) was similar to that in the non-increased group (n = 41). Relative abundances of the family Prevotellaceae (p = 0.007) and genera Alloprevotella (p = 0.007) and Dialister (p = 0.039) were enriched in the increased group compared with the non-increased group. Some bacterial taxonomic clades were differentially present between the two groups. These results may contribute to the development of new dental caries prevention strategies, including the development of detection kits and enlightenment activities for these bacteria.
Highlights
Dental caries caused by some pathogens of the oral microbiome is a widespread disease
In the logistic regression analysis, increase in dental caries was significantly related to DMFT score (OR: 1.191, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.033–1.373, p = 0.016) and Debris Index-Simplified (DI-S) score (OR: 3.6, 95% CI: 1.355–6.913, p = 0.007) at baseline
Prevotellaceae and Veillonellaceae species are known to produce acid [5,27]. These results indicate that several acid-producing bacteria or non-mutans streptococci may be associated with caries progression, which suggests new targets for preventing caries progression
Summary
Dental caries caused by some pathogens of the oral microbiome is a widespread disease. According to the ecological hypothesis of dental caries [5], the proportion of acidogenic and aciduric taxa, such as mutans streptococci and Lactobacillus, are increased and lead to demineralization. This hypothesis suggests that amino acid-degrading microbial taxa, including Prevotella, and Fusobacterium species may cause the acidic environment required for demineralization [5,6]. These results indicate that both mutans and non-mutans streptococci may contribute to dental caries. We investigated the association between other factors and caries increment
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