SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral Epidemiology
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1695189
This article is part of the Research TopicSystematic Reviews, Scoping Reviews and Evidence-Based DentistryView all 8 articles
Assessment of proteomic salivary biomarkers for diagnosis of early childhood caries: A systematic review
Provisionally accepted
Shivaprakash P. K.1Sushmitha Dandamudi2Tharani P3Anitha R. Sagarkar4
Sunaina Shetty Yadadi5
Vineet Vinay6Vijay Desai7Tarun Walia7
Raghavendra M Shetty7*- 1P.M.N.M Dental College and Hospital, Bagalkot, India
- 2Little Stars and She, Hospital for Children and Women, Hyderabad, India
- 3Dr. Baruns Multispecialty Dental Center, Chennai, India
- 4MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Dental Sciences, Bengaluru, India
- 5University of Sharjah College of Dental Medicine, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- 6Sinhgad Dental College and Hospital, Pune, India
- 7College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
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Background: Severe early childhood caries (s-ECC) remains a highly prevalent condition among children worldwide, posing a considerable burden in both developed and developing regions. This systematic review seeks to comprehensively identify, synthesize, and critically evaluate available evidence on salivary proteomic and peptidomic biomarkers that may aid in the diagnosis or risk assessment of ECC. Aim and Objectives: To evaluate any difference in the level of proteomic salivary biomarkers in children with and without early childhood caries. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted across four major electronic databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE via PubMed, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. From an initial yield of 1,253 records, 11 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were included for data extraction. The risk of bias for the included studies was assessed using the QUADAS-2 Tool for the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies. Results: Of the 11 studies included, quality appraisal using the QUADAS-2 indicated that 3 out of 11 studies had low risk in all domains, while the remaining studies had unclear or high-risk domains. Conclusion: The pooled evidence suggests that salivary biomarkers have significant potential for detecting early childhood caries (ECC). Utilizing salivary diagnostics may enhance the prevention of new carious lesions. Future clinical trials with robust methodologies are recommended to generate further conclusive evidence. Clinical significance: Salivary proteomic biomarkers, including MS protein, mucins, amylase, glycoproteins, proline, and glycine, may provide additional value in the early diagnosis of ECC in pediatric populations.
Keywords: Early childhood caries (ECC), severe early childhood caries (S-ECC), salivary biomarkers, Proteomics, peptidomics, diagnostic biomarkers, risk prediction
Received: 29 Aug 2025; Accepted: 22 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 K., Dandamudi, P, Sagarkar, Yadadi, Vinay, Desai, Walia and Shetty. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Raghavendra M Shetty, raghavendra77@yahoo.com
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