Salivary Biomarkers in Diagnosis of Dental caries - A Review Article

Saliva can be used to study the physiological state of the body, having the potential to be used in early detection and diagnosis of diseases. Saliva is secreted from the salivary glands and has multiple functions, including oral cavity cleaning and protection, antibacterial effects and digestion. With the rapid advancement in salivaomics, saliva is well recognized as a pool of biological markers. Saliva contains various microbes and host biological components that could be used for caries risk assessment. The determination of biomarkers in saliva is becoming an important part of laboratory diagnostics and the prediction of dental caries. Biomarkers in saliva (e.g., enzymes, protein markers, or oxidative stress markers) can be used for activity determination for dental caries prognosis. Saliva is an interesting alternative diagnostic body fluid with several specific advantages over blood. These include non-invasive and easy collection and related possibility to do repeated sampling. This makes saliva very interesting for clinical biochemistry of oral diseases. This review summarizes the latest advancements in saliva-related studies and addresses the potential salivary biomarkers in the early diagnosis of dental caries.