Predictive modeling of early childhood caries via spatial-temporal variations of oral microbiota (Validation study)
The strong correlation between bacterial communities and main factors (e.g., time and disease state) both between subjects and within subjects within a given niche thus suggested that oral microbiota could potentially model ECC onset. To test this hypothesis, the 34-children study cohort sampled two times during one year (T1, T3) were used as a train set for model construction, and an additional 24 child subjects were recruited and then each sampled at two time points (T3 and T4) for model validation: 14 patients including 7 experiencing caries-onset (HC group) and 7 experiencing caries- exacerbation (CC group) and ten healthy-steady controls (HH group).