Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the variation of the salivary microbiota in the recurrence of early childhood caries (ECC), and to explore and verify the potential microbial indicators of ECC recurrence. Saliva samples from kindergarten children were tracked every 6 months for 1 year. Finally, in total 28 children and 84 samples were placed on the analysis phase: 7 children with ECC recurrence made up the ECC-recurrence (ER) group, 6 children without ECC recurrence constituted the non-ECC-recurrence (NER) group, and 15 children who kept ECC-free were set as the ECC-free (EF) group. DNA amplicons of the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the bacterial 16S rDNA were generated and sequencing was performed using Illumina MiSeq PE250 platform. No statistically significant differences of the Shannon indices were found in both cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons. Furthermore, both principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and heatmap plots demonstrated that the salivary microbial community structure might have potentiality to predict ECC recurrence at an early phase. The relative abundance of Fusobacterium, Prevotella, Leptotrichia, and Capnocytophaga differed significantly between the ER and NER groups at baseline. The values of area under the curve (AUC) of the four genera and their combined synthesis in the prediction for ECC recurrence were 0.857, 0.833, 0.786, 0.833, and 0.952, respectively. The relative abundance of Fusobacterium, Prevotella, Leptotrichia, and Capnocytophaga and their combination showed satisfactory accuracy in the prediction for ECC recurrence, indicating that salivary microbiome had predictive potentiality for recurrence of this disease. These findings might facilitate more effective strategy to be taken in the management of the recurrence of ECC.
Highlights
Childhood caries (ECC) is referred as “the presence of one or more decayed, missing, or filled tooth surfaces” in any primary tooth in a child aged 71 months or younger (Drury et al, 1999; Selwitz et al, 2007)
Subjects with early childhood caries (ECC) treatment history in the 1-year duration were divided into the ECC-recurrence (ER) and the non-ECC-recurrence (NER) groups according to the results of dental examination at the time point of 6 months after baseline
ECC is a critical public health concern and the poor clinical outcomes owing to high incidence of recurrence after ECC treatment exacerbates its challenge (Almeida et al, 2000)
Summary
Childhood caries (ECC) is referred as “the presence of one or more decayed (non-cavitated or cavitated lesions), missing (due to caries), or filled tooth surfaces” in any primary tooth in a child aged 71 months or younger (Drury et al, 1999; Selwitz et al, 2007). United States (Dye et al, 2015) and over 60% of children in China (Hu et al, 2011) This disease is a critical public health concern because its characteristics of wide-ranging, rapid-progressing, severe, and difficult to treat. Traditional predictors for caries relapse after dental treatment included socio-economic status, general health status, parental compliance of dietary, and oral hygiene instructions, follow-up and recall appointment intervals, and exposure to topical or systemic fluoride. These traditional predictors remain controversial (Berkowitz et al, 2011; Amin et al, 2015) with certain limitations (Tellez et al, 2013). Novel approaches based on best evidence are needed to improve the prevention of ECC recurrence
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