ABSTRACT
This study aimed to analyze the research trends on salivary oxidative stress associated with dental caries and to perform bibliometric approaches for existing publications on this association. A search was performed using the Web of Science Core Collection, without any restriction of language or publication year. The number of periodicals with the most published articles in this theme, most published authors and keywords were mapped; other metrics were also evaluated such as the countries that have more research on the subject and the period in which there were more publications on the subject. During the knowledge mapping, the most frequent experimental designs were analyzed, type of saliva collection, stage of caries disease, evaluated oxidative parameters were retrieved and analyzed from each manuscript. Between the 43 selected articles, the Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry was the periodical appearing the most with 4 published articles. The authors who published the most were Celec, P., Tothova, L., Hegde, A.M., Shetty, S., Antoniali, C., and Pessan, JP with three articles each, and a total of 180 keywords representing the evolution of the theme. India and Asia were found to be the country and continent with most publications, respectively. Most articles collected non-stimulated total saliva, with total antioxidant capacity being the parameter most often evaluated. The type of study that appeared the most was cross-sectional studies, and articles published in the period of 2017-2022 were the most frequent. Studies show that dental caries can be associated to the changes in salivary oxidative biochemistry with an increase in lipid peroxidation, a biomarker of oxidative damage, and an increase in antioxidant capacity in chronic caries, in response to cariogenic challenge. Some studies evidence the reduction of lipid peroxidation after treatment of the carious lesion. Our findings reveal worldwide research trends, as well as a clearer knowledge of the evolution and future scenarios of this issue, also showing the mechanisms associating dental caries with changes in salivary oxidative biochemical parameters are not clear.
ABSTRACT
This systematic review aimed to assess whether dental caries is associated with oxidative salivary stress. The searches were carried out in electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, LILACS, OpenGrey, and Google Scholar, without restrictions on the date of publication and language. The acronym PECO was used, in which the participants (P) were children and adolescents exposed (E) to dental caries compared (C) to those without dental caries, with the outcome (O) of modulation of oxidative biochemical parameters. After the search retrieval, the duplicates were removed, and the articles were evaluated by title and abstract, following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then, the papers were read and thoroughly assessed. After selection, the risk of bias assessment and qualitative synthesis were performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for observational studies. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) tool was used to assess the level of evidence. A total of 5790 studies were found, and 30 articles were considered eligible and were included for the qualitative synthesis and the level of evidence assessment. The studies showed an imbalance of the antioxidant and pro-oxidant parameters in individuals with dental caries, with primarily increases in both total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation. Most articles showed a low risk of bias, having comparability as the main issue. When exploring through GRADE, a very low level of evidence was found. It was possible to observe an association between oxidative stress and dental caries, showing a disbalance of antioxidants and pro-oxidants, but the evidence level was still very low.
