EC Dental Science

Introduction:Saliva, the biological fluid secreted by the major salivary glands like the parotid, sublingual and submandibular glands, has a complex and dynamic biological property and is mostly present in buccal mucosa and the cervical area of teeth. Saliva has a varied composition with a lot of biochemical properties, which makes it an important biological fluid and hence it can be used for detecting various diseases related to the oral cavity like caries, periodontitis, and also many systemic diseases like cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and neurological disorders. Assessment of caries risk will help us identify caries at early stages and the overall incidence of caries in the patient’s mouth. It will also help us to identify the new developing caries and the rate at which caries progression is taking place.

Aim of Work: This review aims at highlighting an overview of saliva as a caries biomarker that can be used for the early cessation of carious lesions, thereby decreasing the progressing caries rate.

Methodology:This review is a comprehensive research of PUBMED and Google Scholar from the years 2000 to 2020.

Conclusion: The complex composition of saliva makes it a very crucial biological fluid. Salivary fluid represents a wide range of biomarkers that help to identify many oral and systemic diseases. The ease of collection, reduction in time and money, and increased patient comfort make saliva a better fluid for biomarker representation when compared to blood or urine. Salivary Biomarkers help us to diagnose the disease at an early age and provide a more conservative management technique.

Aim of Work:

Keywords: Saliva; Biomarker; Early Childhood Caries; Caries Risk Assessment; Enamel Pellicle

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