Abstract
Two-hundred and forty individuals were studied, divided into five groups as follows: caries-free children, children with caries, children with rampant caries, young adults with and without caries. Whole stimulated saliva was collected and all individuals were investigated for DMFT/dmft according to the WHO criteria and the simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S). Quantitative analysis of the total aerobic flora and mutans streptococci in saliva was performed. Also, the level of salivary anti-S. mutans IgA was determined by ELISA. Children with rampant caries showed the highest OHI-S value. The highest total counts of microorganisms were found in the group of children with caries. No statistically significant differences were observed for salivary flow, OHI-S and microorganism counts between the groups of young adults. No correlation between mutans streptococci counts and anti-Streptococcus mutans IgA levels was observed in the studied groups. A correlation between increased anti-Streptococcus mutans IgA levels and caries-free status was observed among young adults but not among children.
Highlights
The infectious nature of dental caries assumes the hypothesis that some form of host immunity can regulate caries activity[2]
For OHI-S, children with rampant caries showed the highest value and significant differences were observed in relation to the other groups (ANOVA, F2;107 = 11.52, p = 0.001 and Tukey’s test 5%)
Our results suggest that the level of IgA to Streptococcus mutans in saliva did not reflect the salivary mutans streptococci concentrations
Summary
The infectious nature of dental caries assumes the hypothesis that some form of host immunity can regulate caries activity[2]. Salivary IgA seems to be directly involved in the immunity to dental caries. This immunoglobulin presumably prevents the adherence of cariogenic microorganisms to hard surfaces[7], and may inhibit the activity of glucosyltransferases[10]. Previous investigations have reported contradictory results in relation to the immunity to dental caries. Some authors reported higher levels of salivary IgA in caries-resistant individuals in relation to caries-susceptible ones, suggesting an effective protective function[4,12,20]. Legler et al.[15] (1981) observed higher caries incidence in patients with IgA deficiency.
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