Chair-side Salivary Streptococcus Mutans Test with Species-specific Monoclonal Antibodies

Objectives: Streptococcus mutans is known to be a primary etiologic agent of human dental caries, and its level in saliva is a critical index for oral health. To help dental professionals to access this information, a species-specific antibodies-based technology was developed to enumerate S. mutans in saliva. This product need silver enhancement to detect low concentration of S. mutans. Now we developed sensitive device without silver enhancement. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a newly developed device (SalivaCheck Mutans, GC Corporation) with saliva samples. Methods: Saliva samples collected from 50 children (1-2 years) by SalivaCheck Swab, were pre-treated with SalivaCheck reagents, and then applied into the device and subjected to real-time PCR respectively. To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the device, saliva sample was loaded with different levels of S. mutans and oral bacteria respectively, and then subjected to the same protocol. T-test was conducted to determine the correlation between PCR-detected S. mutans level and the device-generated result. Results: The device detected 2.5E+05CFU/ml cultured S. mutans in supernatant of saliva, and did not cross-react with 1.0E+08CFU/ml S. salivalius, S. mitis, S. sanguis and L. casei. A screening of 50 saliva samples of infants with this device generated 3 positive detections. The S. mutants levels in these positive samples were consistent with the real-time PCR results (P=0.032). Conclusion: The device could provide a simple and reliable enumeration of S. mutans on chair-side on caries risk screening at community care and chair-side in dental clinic with high specificity and sensitivity to S. mutans in saliva.