A REVIEW OF SALIVARY BIOMARKERS OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE.

Abstract

Background: Periodontal disease is a complex multifactorial disease resulting from the interplay amongst microbiota, host immune response (influenced by genetic make-up) and lifestyle factors. The chronic inflammatory nature of the disease results in the destruction of the component of the periodontium. The process of the disease is associated with inflammation, collagen degradation and, bone loss which correlate with clinical features of periodontal disease. The clinical diagnosis of periodontal disease entails clinical examination involving the evaluation of probing depth, bleeding on probing, and radiographic examination of alveolar bone loss but these examinations are not enough to determine the activity, progression and, evaluation of the efficacy of the periodontal disease treatment. Given the foregoing gap in the traditional method of diagnosing periodontal disease, research on the molecular disease, biomarkers became imperative. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge of salivary biomarkers of periodontal disease and to evaluate their validity in predicting disease progression.

Methods: This narrative overview of 46 articles bordering on biomarkers of periodontal disease was conducted between 2000 to 2023, and assessed in Google Scholars, PubMed/Medline, Science Direct Database using keyword combined with Boolean operators. This was done following literature search; articles title, abstract evaluation and full-text reading studies.

Results: The present review comprised of 46 studies were included (observational studies; reviews articles; and experimental studies), focusing on the detection of periodontal disease using non-traditional method; saliva as a medium for detection of periodontal disease biomarkers.

Conclusion: Saliva is considered as anon-invasive and easier to collect medium for the detection of biomarkers as it contains virtually all the molecules found in other diagnostic media; serum and blood. This review highlights recent advances in salivary biomarkers as proteomics, genomics, and microbial biomarkers and potential clinical applications as well as available Point of Care (POC) diagnostics that aid easy diagnosis and prognosis.