Abstract

Dental caries is a microbiologic infection of the tooth which results in localized dissolution and destruction of the calcified tissue and it is one of the most common chronic infectious diseases in humans throughout the world. People spent huge amounts of money and time in treating dental caries. Hence, it is essential to prevent and control dental caries in public health. In our studies, a total of 70 clinical specimens, 37 from male and 33 from female dental caries patient’s samples were collected. All the clinical samples showed positive results with 87 bacterial isolates from which 63 were facultative anaerobes and 24 were anaerobe, among facultative anaerobe, Streptococcus mutants (22.98%) S. salivarius(13.79%) and Candida spp (14.97%), in anaerobes, Prevotella spp (12.64%) andFusobacterium spp (5.74%). The antibiotic susceptibility test was carried out againstStreptococcus spp. the results showed all isolates were resistance to penicillin and sensitive to tetracycline. The antibacterial activity of commercially available tooth paste was checked against Streptococcus spp., by agar well diffusion method. The results showed that pepsodent and colgate have good antibacterial activity against Streptococcusspp.

Key words: Dental caries, Streptococcus spp, Prevotella spp, antibiotics, tooth pastes.