Cell-Based Biosensors in Oral Health: Emerging Tools for Rapid Detection and Monitoring of Oral Diseases

Oral diseases remain highly prevalent worldwide and require early diagnosis and continuous monitoring to improve clinical outcomes. Conventional diagnostic methods are often invasive, time-consuming, and limited in their capacity for real-time assessment, which has driven the development of biosensor technologies for point-of-care applications. Among these, cell-based biosensors utilize living cells as sensing elements capable of responding to inflammatory mediators, bacterial toxins, metabolic products, and tumor-associated biomarkers. This narrative review summarizes the principles, cell types, detection mechanisms, and applications of cell-based biosensors in oral health. The literature was identified through a structured search of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar using keywords related to cell-based biosensors, oral diagnostics, salivary biomarkers, periodontal disease, oral cancer, and lab-on-chip technologies. Due to the heterogeneity of biosensor designs and detection methods, the selected studies were analyzed qualitatively. Cell-based biosensors have demonstrated applications in periodontal disease detection, cariogenic biofilm monitoring, oral cancer diagnostics, cytotoxicity testing of dental materials, and salivary biomarker analysis. The integration of microfluidic and lab-on-chip systems enables real-time and multiplex detection, supporting the development of chairside diagnostic platforms in dentistry. However, challenges related to standardization, reproducibility, and clinical validation remain and must be addressed to facilitate broader implementation in routine practice.