{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,31]],"date-time":"2026-01-31T19:10:55Z","timestamp":1769886655798,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769644800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004054","name":"King Abdulaziz University","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004054","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Deanship of Scientific Research"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Early childhood caries (ECC) and saliva have been studied across disparate domains, including microbiome, fluoride, immune, oxidative-stress, and neuroendocrine research. However, the ECC\u2013saliva literature has not previously been mapped as a connected system using modern natural language processing (NLP). This study treats PubMed titles and abstracts as data to identify major themes, emerging topics, and candidate neuroimmune axes in ECC\u2013saliva research. Methods: Using the NCBI E-utilities API, we retrieved 298 PubMed records (2000\u20132025) matching (\u201cearly childhood caries\u201d [Title\/Abstract]) AND saliva [Title\/Abstract]. Text was cleaned with spaCy and embedded using a transformer encoder; BERTopic combined UMAP dimensionality reduction and HDBSCAN clustering to derive thematic topics. We summarised topics with class-based TF\u2013IDF, constructed keyword co-occurrence networks, defined an internal topic-level Novelty Index (semantic distance plus temporal dispersion), and mapped high-novelty topics to gene ontology and Reactome pathways using g:Profiler. Prophet was used to model temporal trends and forecast topic-level publication trajectories. Finally, we generated a fully synthetic neuroimmune salivary dataset, based on realistic ranges from the literature, to illustrate how the identified axes could be operationalised in future ECC cohorts. Results: Seven coherent ECC\u2013saliva topics were identified, including classical microbiome and fluoride domains as well as antioxidant\/redox, proteomic, peptide immunity, and Candida\u2013biofilm themes. High-novelty topics clustered around total antioxidant capacity, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and peptide-based host defence. Keyword networks and ontology enrichment highlighted \u201cDetoxification of Reactive Oxygen Species\u201d, \u201ccellular oxidant detoxification\u201d, and cytokine-mediated signalling as central processes. Temporal forecasting suggested plateauing growth for classical epidemiology and fluoride topics, with steeper projected increases for antioxidant and peptide-immunity themes. A co-mention heatmap revealed a literature-level Candida\u2013cytokine\u2013neuroendocrine triad (e.g., Candida albicans, IL-6\/TNF, cortisol), which we propose as a testable neuro-immunometabolic hypothesis rather than a confirmed mechanism. Conclusions: AI-assisted topic modelling and network analysis provide a reproducible, bibliometric map of ECC\u2013saliva research that highlights underexplored antioxidant\/redox and neuroimmune salivary axes. The synthetic neuroimmune dataset and modelling pipeline are illustrative only, but together with the literature map, they offer a structured agenda for future ECC cohorts and mechanistic studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13020185","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T10:08:57Z","timestamp":1769681337000},"page":"185","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Mapping the ECC\u2013Saliva Neuroimmune Axis Using AI: A System-Level Framework"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7459-5324","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ahmed","family":"Alamoudi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Oral Biology Department, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah P.O. Box 80209, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5946-5337","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hammam Ahmed","family":"Bahammam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah P.O. Box 80209, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1186\/s13005-020-00237-z","article-title":"Dental Caries in Primary and Permanent Teeth in Children\u2019s Worldwide, 1995 to 2019: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis","volume":"16","author":"Kazeminia","year":"2020","journal-title":"Head Face Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"650","DOI":"10.14219\/jada.archive.2009.0250","article-title":"Beyond the Dmft","volume":"140","author":"Casamassimo","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Am. Dent. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"650","DOI":"10.1177\/0022034515573272","article-title":"Global Burden of Untreated Caries","volume":"94","author":"Kassebaum","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Dent. 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