The association of selected bacteria with the lesions of root surface caries

Abstract

Plaque from the root surfaces of 165 subjects (mean age 65.5 years, 22-26 teeth/subject) was analysed for specific bacteria. Five subject groups were defined: A (DMFS 16.4), B (DMFS 55.9), C1 (DMFS 55.6), C2 (DMFS 57.0) and C3 (DMFS 48.1). Groups C1 and C2 had unrestored root surface lesions; Group A, B and C3 were free of unrestored root caries and differed in their coronal caries experience. Streptococcus mutans was isolated more frequently from the root lesions in Groups C1 and C2 than from intact root surfaces in Group A. Streptococcus oralis, Streptococcus mitis 1 and Streptococcus sanguis were isolated more frequently from Group A. The percentage contribution that S. mutans made to plaque from lesions in Groups C1 and C2 was higher than that from plaque in Group A and Actinomyces viscosus serovar 2 contributed more to plaque in Group C1 than in samples from Group A. The percentage counts of Lactobacillus in plaque from lesions in Groups C1 and C2 were higher than those from intact roots in Groups A, B, and C3. Subjects were also grouped on the presence of Lactobacillus and S. mutans in plaque samples. Samples with both organisms (n = 17) showed significantly higher isolation frequencies of specific strains of S. mitis 1 and also A. viscosus serovar 2 compared with samples of plaque containing S. mutans or Lactobacillus. Actinomyces naeslundii serovar 1 was not isolated from samples containing both S. mutans and Lactobacillus. The results confirm an association of S. mutans and Lactobacillus with root surface lesions and suggest a relationship between lesions and A. viscosus serovar 2.

Dental Caries: A Microbiological Approach

“…Actinomyces odontolyticus colonizes infants before eruption of teeth [45]. Some root caries lesions are dominated by Actinomyces naeslundii, A. israelii and A. gerencseriae [46][47][48][49][50]. The other significant species involved in caries includes Streptococcus mitis, Bifidobacterium and Actinomyces, a group of 'low pH' aciduric isolates which have been isolated from white spot lesions in humans [6,46,51].…”

“…Phenotypic adaptation and stress response mechanisms such as tolerance of acid, starvation, oxygen, fluoride and expression of urease [44,[46][47][48][49]52,[54][55][56][57]. that are common among strains of a species can be regarded as support of bacteria to survive stresses common to their habitats due to 'stress proteins' [58][59][60][61].…”

Bacterial Profiles of Root Caries in Elderly Patients

“…In several animal studies, filamentous bacteria, such as species of Actinomyces, were implicated in RC etiology (12,28). Other culture-based cross-sectional human studies have focused on comparing the bacterial floras of plaque associated with sound and carious root surfaces (2,3,7,15,30). Mutans streptococci alone or in combination with lactobacilli were detected more frequently in plaque overlying carious surfaces than on healthy root surfaces.…”

Glucose and Lactate Metabolism By Actinomyces Naeslundii

“…These bacteria are among the pioneer microbial species on tooth surfaces and are always found in the healthy mouth throughout dental plaque maturation (Marsh and Martin, 1992;Nyvad, 1993). They have also been frequently isolated from lesions of oral diseases, such as dental caries (Syed et al, 1975;Ellen et al, 1985;Bowden et al, 1990;Beighton and Lynch, 1995;Schupbach et al, 1995Schupbach et al, , 1996 and gingivitis Moore etal., 1982Moore etal., , 1984. naeslundii.…”