Associations Between Single and Multiple Vitamins and the Risk of Dental Caries: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study and Mendelian Randomisation Analysis.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the association between the multivitamins with dental caries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study investigated the association between eight vitamins (including vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, K and E) with dental caries in the NHANES. The mixed effects of multiple vitamins on dental caries were assessed using weighted quantile sum (WQS) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). Mediation analysis was performed to explore the role of inflammatory indicators in vitamin deficiency-induced dental caries. Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis was utilised to determine the potential causal relationship between multivitamins and dental caries. RESULTS: All the 5,145 individuals enrolled in our study, finally 1,715 were diagnosed with dental caries. The result of Model 3 after adjusting for all vitamins and covariates indicated that only vitamin B12 was negatively associated with dental caries in other three quartiles compared with the lowest quartile. Moreover, the dental caries risk decreased with increased concentration levels of multiple vitamins in the BKMR model. Vitamin B12 was confirmed as the main contributor to the association in WQS analysis. Mediation analysis indicated that four inflammatory indicators were the potential effects of vitamin B12 on dental caries. During MR analysis, a causality between vitamin B12 deficiency and dental caries was found. CONCLUSION: The cross-sectional study discovered a negative association between vitamin mixtures exposure and dental caries prevalence, with vitamin B12 as the main contributor. MR analysis also supported a causality between vitamin B12 deficiency and dental caries.