Anticaries vaccine as a promising alternative for protection against dental caries: A literature review

Aim: The aim of this review was to describe the scientific progress regarding anticaries or dental caries vaccines. Material and Methods: An electronic search without date restriction prioritizing those scientific articles belonging to the last 5 years was performed in the PubMed and Scopus databases. The following keywords were used: 'anticaries vaccine,' 'vaccine against dental caries,' and 'caries vaccine.'Results: A total of 11 studies were considered for the present investigation, of which seven were in vivo, one was in vitro, two were both in vivo and in vitro, and one was a theoretical article. The most frequently investigated parameter was the induction of antigen-specific antibodies generated by the administration of the different types of anticaries vaccines. Conclusions: More in vivo studies aiming at solving the few disadvantages of the current anticaries vaccines need to be carried out to start studies in human samples in the not-too-distant future.