Application of omics technologies in cariology research: A critical review with bibliometric analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To review the application of omics technologies in the field of cariology research and provide critical insights into the emerging opportunities and challenges. DATA & SOURCES: Publications on the application of omics technologies in cariology research up to December 2022 were sourced from online databases, including PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. Two independent reviewers assessed the relevance of the publications to the objective of this review. STUDY SELECTION: Studies that employed omics technologies to investigate dental caries were selected from the initial pool of identified publications. A total of 922 publications with one or more omics technologies adopted were included for comprehensive bibliographic analysis. (Meta)genomics (676/922, 73 %) is the predominant omics technology applied for cariology research in the included studies. Other applied omics technologies are metabolomics (108/922, 12 %), proteomics (105/922, 11 %), and transcriptomics (76/922, 8 %). CONCLUSION: This study identified an emerging trend in the application of multiple omics technologies in cariology research. Omics technologies possess significant potential in developing strategies for the detection, staging evaluation, risk assessment, prevention, and management of dental caries. Despite the numerous challenges that lie ahead, the integration of multi-omics data obtained from individual biological samples, in conjunction with artificial intelligence technology, may offer potential avenues for further exploration in caries research. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This review presented a comprehensive overview of the application of omics technologies in cariology research and discussed the advantages and challenges of using these methods to detect, assess, predict, prevent, and treat dental caries. It contributes to steering research for improved understanding of dental caries and advancing clinical translation of cariology research outcomes.

Effect of silver diamine fluoride upon the microbial community of carious lesions: A scoping review.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the effects of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) on the microbial community of carious lesions. DATA: Original studies evaluating the effect of SDF treatment on the microbial community of human carious lesions were included. SOURCES: A systematic search of English-language publications was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Gray literature was searched in ClinicalTrials.gov and Google Scholar. STUDY SELECTION/RESULTS: This review included seven publications reporting the effects of SDF on microbial community of dental plaque or carious dentin, including the microbial biodiversity, relative abundance of microbial taxa, and predicted functional pathways of the microbial community. The studies on microbial community of dental plaque reported that SDF did not have a significant effect on both the within-community species diversity (alpha-diversity) and inter-community microbial compositional dissimilarity (beta-diversity) of the plaque microbial communities. However, SDF changed the relative abundance of 29 bacterial species of plaque community, inhibited carbohydrate transportation and interfered with the metabolic functions of the plaque microbial community. A study on the microbial community in dentin carious lesions reported that SDF affected its beta-diversity and changed the relative abundance of 14 bacterial species. CONCLUSION: SDF showed no significant effects on the biodiversity of the plaque microbial community but changed the beta-diversity of the carious dentin microbial community. SDF could change the relative abundance of certain bacterial species in the dental plaque and the carious dentin. SDF could also affect the predicted functional pathways of the microbial community. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This review provided comprehensive evidence on the potential effect of SDF treatment on the microbial community of carious lesions.

Oral Microbiome and Dental Caries Development.

Dental caries remains the most prevalent oral disease worldwide. The development of dental caries is highly associated with the microbiota in the oral cavity. Microbiological research of dental caries has been conducted for over a century, with conventional culture-based methods and targeted molecular methods being used in order to identify the microorganisms related to dental caries. These methods' major limitation is that they can identify only part of the culturable microorganisms in the oral cavity. Introducing sequencing-based technology and bioinformatics analysis has boosted oral microbiome research and greatly expanded the understanding of complex oral microbiology. With the continuing revolution of molecular technologies and the accumulated sequence data of the oral microbiome, researchers have realized that microbial composition alone may be insufficient to uncover the relationship between caries and the microbiome. Most updated evidence has coupled metagenomics with transcriptomics and metabolomics techniques in order to comprehensively understand the microbial contribution to dental caries. Therefore, the objective of this article is to give an overview of the research of the oral microbiome and the development of dental caries. This article reviews the classical concepts of the microbiological aspect of dental caries and updates the knowledge of caries microbiology with the results of current studies on the oral microbiome. This paper also provides an update on the caries etiological theory, the microorganisms related to caries development, and the shifts in the microbiome in dental caries development.