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Salivary lactobacillus counts as a diagnostic and didactic tool in caries prevention
Author(s) -
Crossner ClaesGöran,
Unell Lennart
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1986.tb01522.x
Subject(s) - medicine , saliva , lactobacillus , dentistry , dental care , preventive care , presentation (obstetrics) , health care , surgery , food science , economics , economic growth , chemistry , fermentation
The usefulness of salivary lactobacillus counts in regular dental care was investigated in 236 13 1 / 2 ‐yr‐old Swedish children for 2 1 / 2 yr. The average individual preventive care was at least as extensive as the restorative care and the dental health of these children must be considered good with a mean DFS‐value of 6.8 at baseline. Nevertheless, it proved possible to reduce caries increment by more than 50%, simply by replacing one NaF‐rinsing in school once every 6 months by a saliva sampling session together with subsequent presentation and information of an inoculated and incubated Dentocult dip‐slide. The way of determining salivary lactobacillus counts in schoolchildren, as performed in this study, could easily be adopted as a routine part of general care. It proved to be useful for early diagnosis of caries and motivation to home care, and as a supplement to clinical examination it would be a valuable aid in the early selection of high‐risk cases as well as identification of low‐risk cases, who do not require extensive prevention.