Salivary Characteristics, Individual Casual Parameters, and Their Relationships with the Significant Caries Index among Korean Children Aged 12 Years

Jae-Hwan Kim, Mi-Ah Kim, Yong Kwon Chae and Ok Hyung Nam
Additional contact information
Jae-Hwan Kim: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea
Mi-Ah Kim: Department of Conservative Dentistry, School of Dentistry and Institute of Oral Bioscience, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea
Yong Kwon Chae: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea
Ok Hyung Nam: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-8

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the salivary characteristics and individual daily living patterns in Korean children aged 12 years and evaluate their relationships according to the significant caries (SiC) index. The study sample consisted of 52 healthy Korean children. The subjects were allocated into a low caries-affected (low CA) group and a high caries-affected (high CA) group, according to the SiC index. Children underwent a standardized oral examination, and parents completed the questionnaires. Stimulated salivary samples were collected to evaluate the salivary pH, salivary flow rate, and salivary levels of Mutans streptococci (MS) and Lactobacilli (LB). The low CA group did not significantly differ from the high CA group for salivary flow rate and salivary pH. However, there were significant differences in salivary MS levels between the two groups ( p < 0.05). Among the individual casual parameters, the prevalence of a sugar-associated primary energy source between meals was significantly higher in the high CA group than in the low CA group ( p < 0.05). Within the limitations of this study, different levels of salivary MS and the consumption of different foods were observed in the low CA and high CA groups. The implications of these findings should be considered for caries susceptibility.

Keywords: dental caries; caries risk; saliva; significant caries index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3118/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3118/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3118-:d:519426

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().