Associations between Maternal Sucrose-stimulated Salivary pH and Early Childhood Caries Diagnosis and Severity: An Observational Study

BackgroundMultiple studies indicate that maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH has the potential to signal higher risk for diagnoses of early childhood caries and severity categories from the vertical transmission of bacteria from mother to child. AimThis study primarily investigated the relationship between maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and child caries diagnosis and severity. It secondarily validated associations between 1) child and maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH, and 2) child sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and caries diagnosis and severity. DesignSalivary pH levels were measured from 440 mother-child dyads. Early childhood caries diagnoses and severity levels were recorded. The analysis of variance test identified the associations between child and maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and regression models were derived to show that maternal and child salivary pH were estimators for childrens caries diagnosis and severity. ResultsMaternal salivary pH <= 5.6, compared to maternal salivary pH = 7, had 7.58 times higher odds for the childs ECC diagnosis and 5.61 times higher odds for moderate-extensive caries severity. Similar results were found for child salivary pH <= 5.6, compared to child salivary pH = 7. Maternal and child salivary pH were positively associated. When maternal salivary pH, compared to child salivary pH, was included with age, gender, and race/ethnicity as predictors for early childhood caries, the median interquartile ranges for sensitivity increased from 58.8 to 64.7 percent and specificity decreased from 84.6 to 80.8 percent. ConclusionDentists should understand that both maternal and child sucrose-stimulated salivary pH can signal the diagnosis and severity of early childhood caries.