A clinical trial on topical effect of probiotics on oral counts in children.

BACKGROUND

Probiotics compete with the cariogenic oral bacteria like Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) for carbohydrates resulting in substrate depletion and reduction in the number of S. mutans.

AIM

The evaluation of topical effect of short-term application of Probiotic formulation on S. mutans counts in plaque of 7-12 years old children with decayed, missing, filled teeth (dmft/DMFT) score 2-5.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A registered randomized clinical trial (Clinical Trials Registry of India/ICMR - CTRI/2019/09/021205) was conducted on 7-12 years medium risk 10 children with dmft/DMFT score 2-5, where an innovative probiotic formulation (prepared from capsule) was applied for 6 consecutive days, on teeth and pre/post plaque samples were evaluated for S. mutans count on mitis salivarius agar.

RESULTS

There was statistically significant and drastic reduction from 608,200 to 6600 (>90%) in the S. mutans count in plaque after the application of probiotic solution for a short period of time (6 days).

CONCLUSION

Short-term application of probiotics can be used as an alternate topical preventive therapy to reduce the count of S. mutans effectively in oral cavity/plaque. Hence, probiotic can be used as topical caries preventive agent.