Physical and chemical properties of saliva and its role in Early Childhood caries - A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Early Childhood Caries is a chronic disease of childhood and salivary parameters are considered as one of the prime etiological factors of Early Childhood Caries.

AIM: To develop a systematic review based on the relation between physical and chemical properties of saliva and Early childhood caries by comparing children with and without Early childhood caries.

METHODS

PubMed, Cochrane, Lilacs, Embase, Scopus, and additional manual search was done up to April 2021 to identify the original cross-sectional observational studies published in English. The risk of bias and quality of the included papers were assessed based on New castle Ottawa guidelines.

RESULTS

From a total of 1709 identified studies, only 22 articles were included in this systematic review and 10 studies were qualified for meta-analysis. Eight studies were classified as ''moderate risk of bias'' and fourteen studies were classified as ''high risk of bias''.

CONCLUSION

There was a significant difference in physical and chemical properties of saliva in children with and without Early childhood caries. Since wide disparity were evident in available studies, further studies are needed to arrive to a definitive conclusion.