The caries risk identification in a 13- to 14-year-old schoolchildren aroup by a simplified kit for salivary buffer capacity.

Abstract

The salivary buffer capacity determination is a relevant index for a caries risk identification. Therefore some laboratory methods were developed to determine the buffer capacity conveniently. However, these methods required special equipment and the preparation of the kits were laborious. The objective of this study was to identify the caries risk in a population sample by a simplified kit which used aciddipped paper for titration for salivary buffer capacity determination. The population sample was 314; 13to 14-year-old students of a school in Bangkok. All subjects were healthy with no clinical sign of salivary gland abnormality. The DMFT were recorded, the stimulated saliva were collected and the salivary buffer capacity were determined by the simplified kit. The relationship between the level of salivary buffer capacity and the level of caries risk was analyzed by ANOVA. The contingency coefficient and the efficacy of the kit were calculated. The result showed that the group with low level of salivary buffer capacity had significantly higher DMFT than the other groups (p<0.05). The level of salivary buffer capacity was significantly correlated with the level of caries risk (p<0.05) with the contingency coefficient = 0.17. The simplified kit was capable to identify the high caries risk group with 37.5% sensitivity and 72.5% specificity. It was concluded that the salivary buffer capacity determined by the simplified kit could be a factor for caries risk identification in the population sample. Since the kit needed no laboratory equipment, it was available to be used in field study.