RESUMEN. Introducción: la movilización global ha generado nuevas necesidades; desde eventos deportivos hasta asuntos criminales, determinar la edad cronológica de los individuos está siendo utilizado por forenses en todo el mundo. El objetivo del presente estudio consistió en analizar los métodos forenses para la estimación de la edad de los individuos, incluyendo las ventajas y limitaciones de dichos métodos. Método: se realizó una búsqueda en el Sistema de Bibliotecas de la Universidad Mayor (SIBUM): Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source; ClinicalKey y Science Direct Freedom Collection, y se seleccionaron artículos publicados entre los años 1980 y 2014. Se hizo además una búsqueda manual, incluyendo revistas específicas y textos de la materia, sin limitación en cuanto al año de publicación. Como criterio de inclusión, se tuvieron en cuenta las investigaciones cuyo objetivo era determinar la edad cronológica de los individuos mediante el análisis forense de tejidos orales. Se excluyeron todos los textos publicados en otro idioma que no fuera inglés. En total, se analizaron 70 publicaciones. Los avances tecnológicos han permitido el estudio de nuevos parámetros; sin embargo, se siguen estudiando los originales identificados por Gustafson en 1950. Conclusiones: la mayoría de los métodos estudiados representan algún grado de invasión. Además, ninguna de estas técnicas es exacta por sí sola, por lo que se recomienda combinar distintas técnicas de medición, abriendo un campo de investigación a técnicas menos invasivas que puedan ser un complemento de las ya existentes. Finalmente, con la información disponible podemos determinar que faltan investigaciones sobre poblaciones de origen africano y asiático, lo que representa un desafío en la actualidad debido a la globalización, las migraciones y la heterogeneidad de las poblaciones actuales.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: global mobilization has created new needs. From sporting events to criminal matters, determining the chronological age of individuals is being used by forensic surgeons worldwide. The objective of the present study was to analyze the forensic methods to estimate the age of individuals, including the advantages and limitations of these methods. Method: a search was conducted in the Sistema de Bibliotecas de la Universidad Mayor (SIBUM): Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, ClinicalKey, and Science Direct Freedom Collection, selecting papers published from 1980 to 2014. A manual search was also conducted, including specific journals and texts in this field, with no limitation as to the year of publication. The inclusion criteria were research projects aimed at determining the chronological age of individuals through forensic analysis of oral tissues. All published texts in a language other than English were excluded. In total, 70 publications were analyzed. Technological advances have paved the way for the study of new parameters; however, the original ones identified by Gustafson in 1950 are still studied. Conclusions: most studied methods are invasive in some degree. In addition, none of these techniques is accurate in its own; therefore, the combination of different measurement techniques is recommended, opening a field of research on techniques that are less invasive and can be a complement to the existing ones. Finally, the available information lead to conclude that research on populations of African and Asian descent is lacking, which is a current challenge because of globalization, migration, and the heterogeneity of current populations.

AIM: To correlate the tray technique for isolation and counting of Streptococcus mutans over dental restoration with the toothpick technique. METHODS: Forty 18-50-year-old patients of both genders with high cariogenic risk were selected. Inclusion criteria were: occlusal restoration evaluated as alpha, according to the Ryge's criteria (examiner' Cohen-Kappa 0.8) and 2 years old maximum age. Each patient provided a saliva sample (control group S) and two samples of dental biofilm from amalgam or resin-based composite restorations in the same patient, one obtained with the toothpick technique (group TT), and the other from homologous tooth restoration with the tray technique (group TR). This method involves only a direct impression on the occlusal surfaces by a section of a fluoride tray with trypticase yeast extract cysteine sucrose with bacitracin (TYCSB) agar previously prepared and solidified. The samples were incubated at 37 ºC for 48 h and the colony-forming units (CFU) were counted. The results were statistically analyzed with SPSS software using the linear regression method at 95% confidence level. RESULTS: TR was able to isolate S. mutans, and there was a significant positive correlation (r=0.95) with TT. There was no significant correlation between TR and control group S (r=0.47). CONCLUSIONS: TR was able to isolate and count S. mutans from the dental biofilm of dental restorations with a significant correlation with the TT group.

El objetivo de esta revisión es mostrar los hallazgos emergentes de las potenciales propiedades anticariogénicas de biomoléculas del metabolismo oral relacionados con la producción de amonio. El análisis de la literatura soporta una nueva dimensión preventiva en el conocimiento de la enfermedad caries dental al estudiar la evidencia in vitro publicada, en la que el amonio producido desde la urea y la arginina del ambiente oral presentan importantes factores endógenos inhibitorios del desarrollo de lesiones de caries dental. Este hecho apoyaría la hipótesis que la producción de amonio por urealisis y por el sistema de arginina deiminasa, podrían inhibir potencialmente el desarrollo de la caries dental por la neutralización de ácidos y la estabilización de la microbiota oral, favoreciendo las condiciones para el mantenimiento de la salud oral. Esta revisión presenta estudios de la actividad enzimática oral, que puede constituir un prometedor campo para establecer nuevas líneas de investigación en cariología, particularmente in vivo e in situ, destinados a establecer la efectividad y aplicación clínica de estos compuestos en la prevención de caries dental.

The purpose of this review is to present the emerging findings on the potential anti-cariogenic properties of the bioactive molecules of oral metabolism related with ammonia production. The literature analysis supports a new preventive dimension in the knowledge of dental caries disease by studying the published evidence provided by in vitro and clinical studies, in which the ammonia produced from urea and arginine in the oral environment represents an important endogenous inhibitory factor in the development of dental caries lesions. This fact would support the hypothesis that ammonia production by urease and the arginine deiminase system could potentially inhibit the development of dental caries by neutralizing acids and stabilizing the oral microbiota, thus enhancing the conditions for oral health maintenance. This review presents studies on the oral enzyme activity which may constitute a promising field in the definition of new lines of research in cariology, particularly in vivo and in situ, aimed at establishing the effectiveness and clinical application of these compounds in the prevention of dental caries.