Evaluation of Chair-Side Assays in High Microbiological Caries-Risk Subjects

The aim of this study was to evaluate the commercial chair-side assays Saliva-Check Mutans and ClinproTM Cario L-PopTM in high microbiological caries-risk dental students compared with conventional semi-quantitative colony counting culture-based technique as the reference method. Saliva samples from 93 subjects of both sexes aged 18-26 years were seeded (Köhler and Bratthall method) on plates containing SB-20M culture medium method and 12 subjects with high caries risk were selected. These 12 individuals were subjected to determination of caries risk using two commercial rapid detection chair-side assays (Saliva-Check Mutans and ClinproTM Cario L-PopTM) according to the manufacturers' instructions. The results were analyzed by the Kappa correlation test using SAS statistical software. There was a perfect agreement (Kappa=1) among the three caries risk evaluation methods - chair-side assays and semi-quantitative CFU count (control) - in all subjects. The results suggest that the commercial chair-side assays evaluated in this study may be practical and useful to identify high microbiological caries-risk subjects.