Caries Vaccine

It is known that dental caries affects persons of both genders, in all races, all socio-economic strata and every age group. As better understood, prevention is better than cure. There has been a widespread implementation of preventive strategies at the community level which have proven extremely effective in industrialized nations, but are difficult to implement in developing countries like India not only because of high cost and scarcity of resources, but also due to limited patient education and improper follow up. Due to the well established role of Streptococcus mutans in development of dental caries, it has been hypothesized that a vaccine against S. mutans cell or a combination of its surface proteins would protect against dental caries by inducing specific salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies which may reduce bacterial pathogenesis and adhesion to the tooth surface by affecting several adhesins simultaneously. Thus, this vaccine, if implemented on a large scale and made available cost effectively to the general population, can lead to eradication of caries at rural and semi urban areas. This book aims at reviewing the evolution and culmination of caries vaccine