Microbioma associado à cárie radicular numa população de idosos

Abstract

Introduction: Root caries is a chronic disease directly associated with aging. Knowledge on the microbiome of root caries lesions is important to enable the development of preventive and therapeutic strategies for this injury specifically in the elderly. Goal: Characterize the microbiome associated with root caries in the elderly through bacterial quantification of the oral biofilm of the lesion. Verify whether the CarioCheck microbiological index, which includes the quantification of cariogenic and carioprotective bacteria, has predictive value for root caries in this population. Materials and methods: This study, which is cross-sectional observational and is included in a longitudinal study, included 53 patients from Clínica Dentária Universitária da Universidade Católica Portuguesa and nursing homes. Each patient who met the requirements to participate in this research was observed by researchers who collected the patient's data by completing a questionnaire registered on the Qualtrics platform, an intraoral assessment and the collection of samples of saliva, oral biofilm and biofilm from the root lesion. Results: Of the 53 patients observed, only 16 had root caries. In these 16 individuals, the presence of cariogenic and carioprotective species in the carious lesion in the biological samples collected was evaluated. The results showed that Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus, Streptococcus mitis and Actinomyces naeslundii can be considered predictors of root caries given their high bacterial load in this lesion. It was also found that the CarioCheck index being developed at SalivaTec requires modifications to be applied to the elderly. Conclusion: This work achieved the objective of characterizing the microbiome of root caries in the elderly. However, the CarioCheck microbiological index was not calculated, given that this questionnaire is not adapted for the elderly and a significantly larger sample would be needed to be able to carry out a comparative analysis between individuals with root caries and those without root caries with comparable ages and health conditions.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria José Correia (Supervisor), Ana Peixoto Gomes (Co-Supervisor) & Pedro Lopes (Co-Supervisor)