OBJECTIVES Determination of the relative amounts of mutans streptococcus in both saliva and plaque and to study its correlation with dental caries in children. STUDY DESIGN The study comprised of 60 children aged 3-8 years divided into 2 groups (30 children in each): Group A- Children with more than 4 carious teeth and Group B- Children without caries. Saliva and plaque was collected from chi...

We have cloned a new gene locus that comprises three genes concerned with the biosynthesis of the serotype c-specific polysaccharide antigen in Streptococcus mutans. The genes encode proteins exhibiting significant homology to the rfbA, rfbB, and rfbD gene products that are involved in the anabolism of dTDP-L-rhamnose from D-glucose-1-phosphate. This anabolism pathway pertains to biosynthesis o...

Whole saliva from 53 children who had been tonsillectomized when they were younger than 4 years old was analyzed for selected antimicrobial proteins and oral mutans streptococci 3-4 years after the operation. The results were compared with those from age- and gender-matched control children with no history of tonsillectomy. The salivary analyses comprised both immune (total IgA, IgG and IgM) an...

A study of dental plaque was first documented in the literature of the 17th century. It has been described as a biofilm composed of bacterial populations living in a plaque matrix. The plaque development starts short time after a tooth surface is cleaned and covered by salivary proteins and glycoproteins conditioning film. Mutans streptococci was described as the most important bacteria related...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among frequency of sucrose exposure, mutans streptococci levels and dental caries. Adult volunteers took part in this crossover study performed in 4 phases of 28 days each. The volunteers wore intra-oral palatal appliances containing blocks of human dental enamel and dripped 20% sucrose solution onto the dental blocks from 0 to 8 tim...

BACKGROUND Early childhood caries has been characterized as first affecting the primary maxillary anterior teeth, followed by the involvement of the primary molars. Other terms for dental caries in preschool children, which inappropriately may imply cause for the disease, includes baby bottle tooth decay, nursing caries, milk bottle syndrome, baby bottle caries, nursing bottle mouth and nursing...

In the attempt to lower the sugar consumption in population is to exchange the number of sugar sweeteners which manufacture produced for used in foods, drinks and candy with non-sugar sweetener as xylitol. Xylitol is effective as noncariogenic substitutes for use in place of glucose. Objectives: A clinical trial was carried out to investigate the effect of sugar candy containing xylitol inhibit...

Members of the viridans group of streptococci are the commonest causes of bacterial endocarditis. However, Streptococcus mutans, a member of this group associated with dental caries which might be expected to be commonly associated with endocarditis, has only rarely been reported. This is possibly because of difficulties in isolation and identification. Differing blood culture media may affect ...

Dental caries is one of the most common oral infectious disease affecting humans worldwide and Mutans Streptococci (MS) have been implicated as major cariogenic bacteria. The “low-pH non-Mutans Streptococci Organisms (non-MSO) have been identified as atypical strains in caries plaque samples, in the absence of MS group. The non-MSO usually competes with MS group for colonizing on the tooth surf...