Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Oral Pathogens Causing Dental Caries in Medea (Algeria)

Abstract

The oral flora contains about 50 billion bacteria spread throughout more than 500 different species and more than 20 unique genera that coexist inside the oral ecosystem. The objective of this research is to identify the microbiological profile of the oral cavity related to dental caries and to examine their antibiogram profile. To this aim, the samples were taken from entire teeth decay, gingival, subgingival, and buccal cavity, in individuals from Medea in Algeria with age intervals between 7 and 62 years. The isolates' antibiotic sensitivity pattern was also examined. Isolates were identified using morphological, cultural, and biochemical features. This enabled us to discover 25 oral microbial strains that can become pathogenic by producing dental caries. Streptococcus spp., Lactobacillus spp., Enterococcus spp., Candida albicans, and Staphylococcus aureus were found to be the most frequent strains in the oral cavity, with prevalence rates of 32, 24, 20, 16, and 8%, respectively. The results also revealed that the prevalence of cariogenic germs depends on the range of age, among the three group ages studied we found that dental caries was high in children where the age group is 7 to 14 years. The results of antibiotic susceptibility have shown that most of the strains are sensitive to antibiotics tested, except Streptococcus spp., and S. aureus was resistant to certain antibiotics. This study indicates that some bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, implying that there is no completely efficient treatment for oral diseases and that prevention is the best approach to combat oral infections.