Assessing Vitamin E and Glutathione Peroxidase Levels in Salivary Samples of Children with and without Dental Caries

Abstract

Introduction: Multiple factors influence the initiation and progression of caries. Recent research has revealed that free radicals can be a prime cause of several inflammatory oral pathologies, including dental caries by direct or indirect influence on the salivary constituents like disease mediated free radicals and antioxidants. Aim: The aim of the present study was comparative evaluation of Vitamin E and Glutathione Peroxidase levels with the prevalence of dental caries in a group of school-going children. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional clinical study was conducted in Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, SIBAR Institute of Dental sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India from November 2016 to November 2018. Hundred children aged between 6-12 years were selected and divided into two groups i.e., caries active group (n=50) and caries-free group (n=50). Children having at least five decayed teeth were considered as caries active and children with DMFT/deft score 0 were considered as caries-free group. A 2 mL of unstimulated saliva was collected from all the subjects and the levels of Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) and Vitamin E were evaluated by spectrophotometric assay. Obtained imbibing values were subjected to statistical analysis using unpaired t-test and SPSS Version 21.0 software. The p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Of the 100 participants 52 were males and 48 were females. The mean age of the study participants was 10.21±1.4 years. Significant reduction in GPx (p<0.001**) and Vitamin E (p<0.05*) were noticed in caries active group when compared to the caries free group. Conclusion: GPx and Vitamin E levels showed an inverse relationship with the presence of dental caries. Thus these antioxidant levels can be used as biomarkers to assess the oral as well as general health. Caries activity can also be measured by these salivary factors which might be helpful in preventive dentistry.