As the connection between oral health and overall health becomes increasingly clear, doctors and patients are becoming more aware of the potential of saliva test kits as a preventive tool. To further improve these kits, scientists are studying saliva itself.
Recently, the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine announced that its researchers have discovered nine inflammatory proteins that indicate the progression of gum disease after tracking 415 patients for about a year and a half.
“Based on these findings, we can envision developing a saliva test kit that dentists can use or even periodontitis patients can use at home – it can be a very useful personalized dental tool for assessing risk and customizing care,” said Flavia Teles, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Basic and Translational Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.
The researchers collected saliva and blood samples every two months for a year to assess the participants’ periodontitis status. Among 302 patients with early to severe periodontitis and 113 patients without periodontitis, saliva samples were tested for 10 proteins related to inflammation and blood samples for five. Participants with gum disease received standard nonsurgical periodontal treatment and were reassessed after three and six months.
The results showed that patients with severe periodontitis had the fastest disease progression within a year, with significantly increased levels of several inflammation-related signaling proteins in saliva, including interferon-γ, IL-6, VEGF, IL-1β, and MMP-8. Although there was no significant difference in the degree of disease progression among inflammatory proteins in the blood, the researchers found that levels of MMP-8, MMP-9, and C-reactive protein decreased significantly after treatment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the “Global Oral Health Report” in 2022 for the first time to comprehensively present the burden of oral disease in 194 countries. The report shows that nearly half of the world’s population (45%, or 3.5 billion people) suffer from oral disease, and three-quarters of these patients live in low- and middle-income countries. The report also warned that global cases of oral disease have increased by 1 billion in the past 30 years.
The report also found that the most common oral diseases are tooth decay, severe gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancer. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization estimates that severe periodontal disease affects approximately 19% of the world’s adult population, with more than 1 billion cases worldwide.
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