ASSESSING THE LACTOBACILLI AND S.MUTANS LOAD IN THE SALIVA OF CHILDREN HAVING DENTAL CARIES

INTRODUCTION:Caries is a demanding disease of the teeth. It is common in all age groups of people. The organisms associated may differ according to age and food habits. In childhood the major food item consumed will be milk and milk products .This leads to persistence of low pH in the saliva in children. As mutans are implicated in the development of caries ,the role played by them in lactobacilli dominated environment is to be verified. AIM:This study is done to find out the association of Lactobacilli in childhood caries. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Saliva samples were collected from 10 ( total 35 samples planned) patients under the age of 10 years after obtaining informed concerns and were clinically examined for the caries index. The samples were diluted at 1 in 80 dilution with sterile saliva. Then 10 ml each of the sample is transformed to MSA and MacConkey agar for the isolation and enumerating the S.mutans and the lactobacilli. The MSA agar was incubated at 37 degree celsius for 24 hours and for lactobacilli the plates were incubated for 24 hours. CONCLUSION: This shows the susceptibility to caries in children is mainly due to the acidogenic activity of lactobacilli than the plaque build up due to S.mutans.