Predictive assessment of clusterization of the oral mineral metabolism in mixed dentition

Abstract

Relevance . The high incidence of dental caries in children remains relevant to the modern preventive dentistry. Many works have appeared in the recent years on the primary prevention of dental diseases in children based on the caries risk prediction. Thus, dental caries prognosis is relevant and requires further study to improve the methods of individual prevention in children. Purpose - to determine predictors of the oral mineral exchange in the mixed dentition according to the results of the cluster analysis. Materials and methods. A comprehensive clinical and laboratory examination of the oral metabolic processes was performed in 60 caries-resistant children with the mixed dentition aged from 7 to 12 years. Statistical analysis was performed using STATISTICA 8.0 software. Results. The study revealed strong relationship between the individual clinical and laboratory predictors, determined the optimal set of predictors for classifying patients with different types of saliva microcrystallization, which is a prerequisite for the possible caries risk prognosis in mixed dentition. Conclusions. The obtained data of the oral mineral metabolism predictors can help to plan the individual primary prevention programs in children during the active formation of the hard dental tissues and to create software to make preclinical diagnosis and prognosis of the subclinical carious process.