Yeast of Candida genus in dental plaque of ECC affected children

Background: The yeasts of the Candida genus represent an important part of the normal oral microflora, including dental plaque. Their ability to produce organic acids during the fermentation of carbohydrates participates in the cariogenic effect of dental plaque. Aim: The study aims to evaluate the occurrence of yeasts, especially C. dubliniensis in dental plaque samples obtained from children affected by Early Childhood Caries (ECC). Design: In this study, 240 samples from patients suffering from ECC and 255 samples from healthy children were examined. Phenotypic methods (chlamydospore formation, characteristic growth on CHROMagar Candida and Staib Agar, growth at 45 °C and latex agglutination) and the genotypic method (PCR with the species-specific primer pair targeted to act1 intron and universal primer pair) were used for the differentiation between C. dubliniensis and C. albicans. Results: We isolated 167 yeast strains from patients with ECC (positivity 69.6 %) and only 97 yeast strains from control samples (38.0 %). The differences in yeast colonization of teeth between the two groups are significant (p>0.01). Of the total amount of 167 yeast strains isolated from ECC samples we identified 31 strains (18.5 %) of C. dubliniensis. The situation in the control group was different; only 2 C. dubliniensis strains (2.1 %) were identified. Conclusion: The results show that teeth of children with ECC are colonized with yeasts more frequently than teeth of healthy children. C. dubliniensis is a frequent part of dental plaque in ECC-affected children in contrast with healthy children. The study was supported by the project 1M0528. Parole chiave: Pedodontics, ECC, oral microbiology, Candida sp., C. dubliniensis