Children Tooth Brushing Behavior and Oral Microbiota: A Pilot Study

Abstract

By age 17, almost 80% of US children have dental caries resulting from cariogenic bacteria that could be reduced with tooth brushing. This cross-sectional, correlational pilot study aims to understand the association between tooth brushing and oral microbiota in children. Oral specimens and survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 16 children, aged 7–12, and attending a community dental clinic. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze sample characteristics and tooth brushing behavior. Biospecimens were analyzed using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. Beta diversity measures were compared across tooth brushing groups using Permutational Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA) and Analysis of Similarities (ANOSIM) tests in R. The frequency of tooth brushing in this sample was once a day (brush1; 43.8%), twice a day (brush2; 43.8%), or more than twice a day (12.6%). Major phyla found in the subjects’ upper and lower teeth were the following: Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria was significantly lower in brush2 as compared to brush1 (p = 0.001), whereas the relative abundance of Proteobacteria was significantly higher (p = 0.025). The association between tooth brushing frequency and microbiome beta diversity was significant (p = 0.005 by PERMANOVA and p = 0.002 by ANOSIM). This study demonstrates that tooth brushing frequency could affect the proportional composition of the oral microflora. Additional research on the implication of these changes is warranted.

Nepali oral microbiomes reflect a gradient of lifestyles from traditional to industrialized

“…As a result, even subtle differences in types of toothpaste and brushing frequency result in changes in the plaque and salivary microbiota [113][114][115][116]. In traditional populations, miswak, also referred to as a chewing stick, is often utilized for mechanically and chemically cleaning teeth and has been demonstrated to inhibit common oral pathogens [117][118][119][120][121].…”

“…Oral hygiene practices are associated with the microbiome, as the mechanical actions of brushing and flossing disrupt plaques and antimicrobial toothpastes also chemically break down biofilms. As a result, even subtle differences in types of toothpaste and brushing frequency result in changes in the plaque and salivary microbiota [113–116]. In traditional populations, miswak, also referred to as a chewing stick, is often utilized for mechanically and chemically cleaning teeth and has been demonstrated to inhibit common oral pathogens [117–121].…”

The status and associated factors of earlychildren caries among Preschoolchildren in Chongming islet， China: across-sectional survey

“…Preschool children can prevent dental caries through a variety of methods, such as maintaining good diet, oral hygiene and uoride toothpaste [14][15][16]. A child's diet has a signi cant impact on a child's chances of developing dental caries, high frequency of snacking, frequent consumption of sugary drinks and dairy products, and eating sweet food after dinner or before sleep increasing the risk of developing dental caries [17][18][19].The good oral hygiene habits can effectively reduce the incidence of dental caries, the results show that Children brush their teeth for more than 2 minute, caregiver help children to brush their teeth or check the brushing effect can effectively reduce the occurrence of dental caries in children, Prolonging the brushing time and increasing the brushing frequency can affect the diversity of oral ora, so as to reduce the occurrence of dental caries [20], preschool children may brush their teeth incorrectly, so caregivers can help or assist children to brush their teeth to reduce the incidence of dental caries in preschool children [14]. Dental caries is an infectious disease, streptococcus mutans is the most common dental caries pathogens, including streptococcus mutans and streptococcus brucella [21], lactic acid bacteria was also involved in the incidence of dental caries, and play an important role in the process of the development of dental caries [22].…”

Oral microbiota in autistic children: Diagnosis-related differences and associations with clinical characteristics

“…This questionnaire was complemented with a set of questions on oral health and questions that were not relevant for children were removed (on menopause among others). In line with prior literature demonstrating a significant impact of nutrition and oral health on mouth microbiome compositions ( Calderon et al, 2021 ; Sedghi et al, 2019 ), we here specifically assessed how these metadata lifestyle variables could impact oral microbiome compositions. The full list of assessed nutrition and oral health lifestyle variables can be found in Supplementary Tables S5–6 .…”