Salivary counts of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli and past caries experience in caries prediction

Clinical and salivary factors were compared with each other for the ability to predict 3-year caries increment in a group of 122 teenagers. The group was screened according to two levels of salivary mutans streptococci and lactobacilli and comparable levels of baseline caries experience (DFS). The risk for caries was validated at three different levels. Sensitivity, specificity, and the positive and negative prediction values were calculated for each level. The results showed that the baseline caries experience was better or as powerful as the salivary tests in predicting future caries increment at comparable screening and validation levels.