Background Multiple studies indicate that maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH has the potential to signal higher risk for diagnoses of early childhood caries and severity categories from the vertical transmission of bacteria from mother to child.

Aim This study primarily investigated the relationship between maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and child caries diagnosis and severity. It secondarily validated associations between 1) child and maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH, and 2) child sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and caries diagnosis and severity.

Design Salivary pH levels were measured from 440 mother-child dyads. Early childhood caries diagnoses and severity levels were recorded. The analysis of variance test identified the associations between child and maternal sucrose-stimulated salivary pH and regression models were derived to show that maternal and child salivary pH were estimators for children’s caries diagnosis and severity.

Results Maternal salivary pH <= 5.6, compared to maternal salivary pH = 7, had 7.58 times higher odds for the child’s ECC diagnosis and 5.61 times higher odds for moderate-extensive caries severity. Similar results were found for child salivary pH <= 5.6, compared to child salivary pH = 7. Maternal and child salivary pH were positively associated. When maternal salivary pH, compared to child salivary pH, was included with age, gender, and race/ethnicity as predictors for early childhood caries, the median interquartile ranges for sensitivity increased from 58.8 to 64.7 percent and specificity decreased from 84.6 to 80.8 percent.

Conclusion Dentists should understand that both maternal and child sucrose-stimulated salivary pH can signal the diagnosis and severity of early childhood caries.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was funded by the Hansjorg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone Health.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Ethics committee/IRB of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine gave ethical approval for this work under protocol number 18-00076.

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