Background: Oral colonization starts at birth by vertical transmission.
Objective: To determine whether mode of delivery influences the oral colonization of infants
and contributes to the risk of childhood dental caries.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted in the electronic database Web of Science
for articles published from January 1995 to December 2015 by using a set of keywords.
Results: From 2,644 citations identified through electronic search, ten studies met the
inclusion criteria. According to the studies mode of delivery influences oral microbial density,
oral microbial profile and the timing of oral colonization by cariogenic microbiota. However,
there are no consistent results concerning either the prevalence of children harboring
cariogenic microbiota or the prevalence of early childhood caries by mode of delivery.
Conclusion: Mode of delivery influences early oral colonization. However, it seems
that other determinants rather than mode of delivery could be major contributors to the
development of early childhood caries.
Keywords: Early childhood caries, early oral colonization, acquisition of oral microflora,
mode of delivery
