Search

(1) Background: The aetiology of oral disease is multifactorial, involving genetic and environmental factors, including dietary ones. Bitter taste genetics may be related to oral health through dietary modulation or non-gustatory roles, including modulation of inflammation. Investigations of bitter taste and oral health associations to date have been restricted to specific polymorphisms, limited outcomes (caries), and age-groups (children), and links to inflammation remain to be elucidated. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional study (n = 65) investigated the correlations between bitter taste genotypes, oral health outcomes, and oral inflammation markers. Oral examinations were conducted, including saliva testing with evaluation of flow rate, pH, and buffering and antioxidant capacity (FRAP) and IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 levels. DNA was collected via buccal swabs and used to evaluate the presence of multiple bitter-taste receptor gene polymorphisms. (3) Results: The major allele for TAS2R4-rs2233998, TAS2R5-rs2227264, TAS2R50-rs1376251, and TAS2R9-rs3741845 was associated with a higher mean of unstimulated salivary flow rate, FRAP, TNF-α, IL-1β, and likelihood of filled teeth. Presence of the major allele for TAS2R4-rs2234001 and TAS2R9-rs3741845 was associated with lower means FRAP, TNF-α, IL-1β, DMFT index, and likelihood of missing teeth. (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest relationships between bitter-taste genotypes, oral health outcomes, and inflammatory markers. These findings justify the need for further studies that could help identify risk groups and develop novel agents for maintaining oral health.

The advancement of digital health provides strategic and cost-effective opportunities for the progression of health care in children and adolescents. It is important for clinicians to be aware of the potential of emerging pain outcome measures and employ evidence-based tools capable of reliably tracking acute and chronic pain over time. The main emerging pain outcome measures for children and adolescents were examined. Overall, seven main texts and their corresponding digital health technologies were included in this study. The main findings indicated that the use of emerging digital health is able to reduce recall bias and can improve the real time paediatric data capture of acute and chronic symptoms. This literature review highlights new developments in pain management in children and adolescents and emphasizes the need for further research to be conducted on the use of emerging technologies in pain management. This may include larger scale, multicentre studies to further assess validity and reliability of these tools across various demographics. The privacy and security of mHealth data must also be carefully evaluated when choosing health applications that can be introduced into daily clinical settings.