Oral streptococci are primary colonizers of tooth surfaces and Streptococcus mutans is the principal causative agent of dental caries in humans. A number of proteins are involved in the formation of monospecies biofilms by S. mutans. This study analyzed the protein expression profiles of S. mutans biofilms formed in the presence or absence of S. gordonii, a pioneer colonizer of the tooth surfac...

Previous studies have shown a positive correlation between salivary IgA antibody levels to Streptococcus mutans and caries resistance in adults. In this study, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to compare IgA antibody levels with S. mutans in whole and parotid saliva from 20 caries-susceptible (CS; DMFS > 5) and 20 caries-resistant (CR; DMFS < or = 1) children (aged 7-11 years)...

Fifty pharyngeal isolates of alpha-haemolytic streptococci were tested against 20 cervical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae for bacterial interference in vitro using the lawn-spotting method. Forty-seven (94%) isolates of streptococci showed inhibitory activity toward N gonorrhoeae, although nine of these were inhibitory to only one isolate of N gonorrhoeae. Isolates of N gonorrhoeae varied wi...

Institute of Dental Research Westmead Millennium Institutes Westmead Centre for Oral Health PO Box 533 Wentworthville NSW 2145 Tel (02) 98458772 Fax (02) 98457599 E-mail: [email protected] Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life threatening, endovascular infection occurring when bacteria enter the blood stream and adhere to heart valves. Mortality rates remain in the range of 1127% ....

OBJECTIVE In the recent years, herbal oral hygiene products have gained increasing attention. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of three types of mastic gums on the level of Mutans streptococci, Lactobacilli and pH of the saliva. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-two students in the age range of 20-30 years were divided into three parallel groups; each of them separately used pure mas...

The aim of this study was to determine whether random amplified polymorphic DNA (AP-PCR) analysis is able to differentiate genetically different clones of mutans streptococci, in 22 Brazilian family members. Stimulated saliva samples were collected from fathers, mothers and infants. For 5-18 months babies with erupting primary dentition, plaque samples were collected using sterile tooth pick ti...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of dental enamel defects, recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) and caries experience and to measure salivary flow rate, buffer capacity, saliva and plaque pH and salivary cariogenic microflora in patients with celiac disease (CD) compared to healthy subjects. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Thirty-five patients, aged 6-19 years, with a dia...

Endocarditis is frequently attributable to oral streptococci, but mechanisms of pathogenesis are not well understood, although monocytes appear to be important. High titers of interleukin-12 (IL-12) are produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after engaging Streptococcus mutans, but monocytes in developing endocardial vegetations tend to disappear rather than become macrophages. T...

This study was undertaken to evaluate the validity of a new modified dip-slide test kit for the estimation of salivary mutans streptococci, lactobacilli and Candida levels by comparison with the results obtained from conventional agar plate counts. Five milliliters of paraffin-stimulated saliva sample was collected from 118 6-12-year old children attending 4 primary schools in Thailand. Saliva ...

Early acquisition of caries-associated bacteria is a major risk factor for early childhood caries (ECC) and significantly increased proportions of mutans streptococci in saliva and biofilm are demonstrated in cases with severe ECC. Thus, an antibacterial approach to combat the disease may be considered and there are several antiseptics available for topical application such as chlorhexidine (CH...