An estimation and evaluation of total antioxidant capacity of saliva in children with severe early childhood caries.

BACKGROUND. The available evidence implicating the involvement of oxidative stress in the caries process suggests that local antioxidant status may be of importance in determining the susceptibility to the caries process. AIM. The aim of this study was to estimate the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in unstimulated saliva of healthy children with and without severe early childhood caries (S-ECC) and to correlate the individual TAC level with dmft (d = decayed, m = missing, f = filled, t = teeth) score and age. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The TAC of saliva was investigated in 100 healthy children in the age range of 3-5 years divided in two groups, control and study group based on the absence or presence of caries, respectively. The antioxidant capacity of saliva was estimated by an adaptation of ABTS [2, 2'-Azino-di-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulphonate)] assay. RESULTS. The mean TAC level in the saliva of the children in study group was found to be significantly increased (P < 0.001), and a significantly linear regression was seen between the TAC and dmft score (P < 0.001) whereas it was insignificant between the TAC and age (P = 0.078). CONCLUSION. The results indicated that TAC of saliva increased significantly in children with S-ECC and increasing prevalence of dental caries predisposes to the increase in TAC of saliva.