Antimicrobial peptides have become promising candidates for the development of antimicrobial therapeutics. This paper describes the collection and analysis of data performed for a published concise review on the application of antimicrobial peptides for the management of dental caries. A literature search was performed to locate journal articles published in the English language up to 2019. The search was performed through six common databases. The search term was (Antimicrobial peptide OR AMP OR Cathelicidin OR Defensin OR Histatin OR Statherin) AND (Caries OR Dental caries). A total of 4,392 journal articles were identified and 956 duplicated articles were removed. Two investigators performed a screening of titles and abstracts of the articles. They excluded 3,364 articles which were literature reviews or studies were unrelated to antimicrobial peptides or dental caries. The search finally included 67 articles for analysis. The results of the search show the antibacterial properties of natural antimicrobial peptides against Streptococcus mutans. The anti-microbial peptides synthesized by researchers could inhibit bacteria, especially against Streptococcus mutans. This dataset lists and summarise the data from published studies regarding to antimicrobial peptides for management of dental caries. The dataset provides comprehensive knowledge on antimicrobial peptides as a bactericidal and remineralising reagent for the management of dental caries.

The literature search was performed by two independent investigators (NJY and YIX) to identify articles in English from establishment to 2019 including advanced online articles. The search was performed in four common databases on the subjects of dentistry, oral surgery and medicine: Embase, PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science. In addition, the paper also searched two databases targeting for the archive of literature of antimicrobial peptides, namely Collection of Anti-Microbial Peptides and the Antimicrobial Peptide Database. The search term was (Antimicrobial peptide OR AMP OR Cathelicidin OR Defensin OR Histatin OR Statherin) AND (Caries OR Dental caries). Full search strategies were as follows: PubMed, (‘Antimicrobial peptide’ OR ‘AMP’ OR ‘Cathelicidin’ OR ‘Defensin’ OR ‘Histatin’ OR ‘Statherin’) AND (‘Caries’ OR ‘Dental caries’); Web of Science, TOPIC: ((‘Antimicrobial peptide’ OR ‘AMP’ OR ‘Cathelicidin’ OR ‘Defensin’ OR ‘Histatin’ OR ‘Statherin’) AND (‘Caries’ OR ‘Dental caries’)) Timespan: All years. Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, ESCI.; Embase, ((Antimicrobial peptide or AMP or Cathelicidin or Defensin or Histatin or Statherin) and (Caries or Dental caries)).mp. [mp=title, abstract, heading word, drug trade name, original title, device manufacturer, drug manufacturer, device trade name, keyword, floating subheading word, candidate term word]; Scopus, ALL ((antimicrobial AND peptide OR amp OR cathelicidin OR defensin OR histatin OR statherin) AND (caries OR dental AND caries )). The last search for this paper was conducted on 31 January 2020.

This dataset combines the results from previous studies regarding to antimicrobial peptides for management of dental caries. The dataset shows the antibacterial properties of natural antimicrobial peptides against Streptococcus mutans. In addition, the antimicrobial peptides synthesized by researchers could inhibit bacteria, especially against Streptococcus mutans. Some of antimicrobial peptides could prevent bacteria from adhering to tooth surface, whereas some of them displayed remineralising properties on hydroxyapatite.

No previous review has evaluated the current status and prospects of antimicrobial peptides for managing dental caries. This dataset provides a comprehensive summary on using antimicrobial peptides as a promising reagent to prevent and treat dental caries. Hence, these data could be useful to researchers interested in development of novel anti-caries medication.

The method of data collection was through a systematic search of the six databases. Clinical studies and studies of different designs were included. Therefore, the methods described and the data contained in this paper may be useful for future research on the application of antimicrobial peptides in management of dental caries in clinics.

This dataset provides comprehensive knowledge on antimicrobial peptides as an bactericidal and remineralising reagent for the management of dental caries.

• Table 1. Types of antimicrobial peptides for prevention and treatment of dental caries

• Table 2. List of antimicrobial peptides and authors and year of the publications

• Table 3. Abbreviation list

•  Bibliography. The list of 67 articles remained for data analysis