Detecting caries susceptible population in children with gtfB oligonucleotide probe / 华西口腔医学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a quick, exact and inexpensive method to detect caries susceptibility in children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>125 caries free children, aged 3-4 years, were randomly sampled. A combination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gtfB oligonucleotide probe hybridization method was used to detect Streptococcus mutans in saliva. The participants were followed up for a year and the clinical examination results were compared with the laboratory results. The perspective study was used to evaluate the detecting approach.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>When the combination of PCR and hybridization method was used to detect caries susceptibility of the sample, the predictive sensitivity, predictive specificity and predictive reliability were all increased to 69.2%, 46.8% and 54.3%, respectively as compared to only PCR, which were 56.4%, 44.2% and 48.3%, respectively. The samples with both the positive and negative results of hybridization detection had caries clinically, but the dmft index and prevalence were higher in the positive (dmft was 2.15 +/- 0.86, and the prevalence was 23.28%) than in the negative(dmft was 1.58 +/- 0.51, and the prevalence was 10.34%) which was statistically significant (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The probe was found to be quite potential in detecting caries susceptibility, but the predictive specificity and predictive reliability values were not significant.</p>