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Abstract
Dental caries is the most contagious disease throughout the world. In
the present study, a total of 100 dental caries patients were selected and
samples from these patients were collected through sterile pincers for
microbiological examination. A total of 9 different pathogenic bacterial
isolates were identified through conventional culturing technique and
among them maximum number of occurrence was by Salmonella spp
(26.13%), followed by E. coli (17.39%), Proteus spp (17.39%), Shigella spp
(8.69%), Pseudomonas spp (8.69%), Vibrio spp (8.69%), Enterobacter spp
(4.34%), Yersinia spp (4.34%) and S. mutans (4.34%). Furthermore,
antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed by 9 different
commercially available antibiotics i.e. vancomycin, erythromycin,
clindamycin, amoxicillin, tetracycline, rifampicin, ampicillin, ticarcillin
and metronidazole/silver sulphadizine. Kirby Bauer disc diffusion
method was used against test organisms and it was observed that all
these antibiotics expressed significant activity against greater part of test
organisms but few of them showed resistance to metronidazole/silver
sulphadizine. In addition to this, different toothpastes encoded as TP-1,
TP-2, TP-3, TP-4 and TP-5 were used at a concentration of 20 mg/mL in
order to evaluate their activity against test organisms and it was
observed that all these toothpastes showed significant activity against
isolated bacteria. It was concluded that all these toothpastes contained
fluoride which supports to avoid tooth decay and promote minty fresh
breath. Furthermore, it was recommended that avoid usage of too much
sweets, chocolates, candies especially in children/adults, and there must
be a proper use of toothpastes twice a day at every stage of life.
Keywords Dental Caries, Pathogenic Bacteria, Antibiotics, Fluoride
Toothpastes