Melatonin And Caries Among Adolescents: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Melatonin is recognized as a free radical scavenger and an immunomodulator with a potential to influence the development of oral diseases. However, a PubMed search using the terms 'Caries,' 'Melatonin,' and 'Adolescents' yields no results, highlighting the scarcity of evidence on this topic. A cross-sectional survey was performed in three Russian regions and included 390 15-17-years-old adolescents. Caries experience was presented as the sum of decayed (D), missing (M) and filled (F) teeth (DMFT index) with means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) assuming a Poisson distribution. Salivary melatonin concentration was determined by ELISA. Associations between quartiles of melatonin concentration and DMFT index and its components were assessed using multivariable Poisson regression. Prevalence ratios (PR) were adjusted for gender, age and region. The prevalence of caries was 87.4% (95%CI:81.6–91.8%). The means for melatonin concentration and DMFT were 5.94 (95%CI:5.70-6.19) and 5.56 (95%CI:5.32-5.80), respectively. An inverse association was observed between melatonin and DMFT with PR=0.89, PR=0.82 and PR=0.68 for the second, third and fourth quartiles of salivary melatonin concentration and DMFT (p for trend <0.001). Similar associations were observed for the D (p=0.036), M (p=0.083), and F (p<0.001) components, respectively. A significant dose-response inverse association between salivary melatonin and DMFT, and its components suggests that melatonin may play an important role in the pathogenesis of caries.