Title:Understanding the Predictive Potential of the Oral Microbiome in the
Development and Progression of Early Childhood Caries
Volume: 19
Issue: 2
Author(s): Cristiane Duque*, Daniela Alvim Chrisostomo, Amanda Caselato Andolfatto Souza, Gabriela Pacheco de Almeida Braga, Vanessa Rodrigues dos Santos, Karina Sampaio Caiaffa, Jesse Augusto Pereira, Warlley Campos de Oliveira, Apoena de Aguiar Ribeiro and Thaís Manzano Parisotto
Affiliation:
- Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry, Araçatuba Dental School, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Araçatuba, Brazil
Keywords:
Early childhood caries, oral microbiome, genome, transcriptome, metabolome, antimicrobial agents.
Abstract:
Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is the most common chronic disease in
young children and a public health problem worldwide. It is characterized by the presence of atypical
and fast progressive caries lesions. The aggressive form of ECC, severe early childhood caries
(S-ECC), can lead to the destruction of the whole crown of most of the deciduous teeth and cause
pain and sepsis, affecting the child's quality of life. Although the multifactorial etiology of ECC is
known, including social, environmental, behavioral, and genetic determinants, there is a consensus
that this disease is driven by an imbalance between the oral microbiome and host, or dysbiosis,
mediated by high sugar consumption and poor oral hygiene. Knowledge of the microbiome in
healthy and caries status is crucial for risk monitoring, prevention, and development of therapies to
revert dysbiosis and restore oral health. Molecular biology tools, including next-generation sequencing
methods and proteomic approaches, have led to the discovery of new species and microbial biomarkers
that could reveal potential risk profiles for the development of ECC and new targets for
anti-caries therapies. This narrative review summarized some general aspects of ECC, such as definition,
epidemiology, and etiology, the influence of oral microbiota in the development and progression
of ECC based on the current evidence from genomics, transcriptomic, proteomic, and
metabolomic studies and the effect of antimicrobial intervention on oral microbiota associated with
ECC.
Conclusion: The evaluation of genetic and proteomic markers represents a promising approach to
predict the risk of ECC before its clinical manifestation and plan efficient therapeutic interventions
for ECC in its initial stages, avoiding irreversible dental cavitation.