Prevalence and Resistance Patterns of Streptococcus mutans: Efficacy of a New Natural Toothpaste

Description

Dental caries is continuous tooth demineralization and decay, caused mainly by an imbalance of microflora in the oral cavity, with risk factors including dietary habits and hygiene. S. mutans bacteria is well known to be the most common causative agent of dental caries, with three main virulence factors which are aciduricity, acidogenicity, and biofilm formation ability, it is also fastidious, facultatively anaerobic, and Gram-positive cocci, The acids produced by these bacteria and the other microbes demineralizes the tooth enamel casing dental plague. The accumulation and development of dental plague is dependent on the result of the interactions between the adhesiveness of plague to the tooth surface and physical sheer forces that helps to remove or dislodge the dental plague. Toothpaste and brushes are among the physical forces that remove plague. Active agents such as surfactants, antibacterial agents, baking soda, peroxide, metal sacks herbal and natural extracts and chloride dioxide are incorporated into treatment forms. When these substances are added to oral products, they kill microorganisms by disrupting their cell walls and inhibiting their enzymatic activity. Dentifrices need to contain various antimicrobial agents in order to reduce, control and prevent different kinds of dental diseases. Many dentifrices claim to have antimicrobial properties but very little research has been conducted to investigate those claims.​ Our research focus on the fact that tooth decay is prevalent even with the abundance of many oral health products, questioning why these products are not effective and trying to find alternatives using several plant extracts traditionally and in some scientific papers, known to contain antimicrobial agents in promising approach. Conducting this research begins with sample collection from caries sites in the teeth of Palestinians in Hebron, culturing these samples on blood, MacConkey, and chocolate agar to grow them.Till now, the grown colonies that were suspected to be Streptococcus mutans by phenotypic and biochemical tests, including colony morphology and hemolysis, oxidase test, catalase test, and Lancefield kit for some samples, were cryopreserved, and this was the last step we accomplished. The further steps include molecular identification, antibiotic diffusion test, testing several common toothpastes against S. mutans, and finally using four specific types of plants as antimicrobial agents after extracting from them, in the formulation of a new effective natural toothpaste. This research outcome is expected to be a new toothpaste that shows significant effects against S. mutans in vitro, and the significance is to set the basis for effective products against the pathogenicity of S. mutans and development of dental caries in general.​ The project is designed for students with strong background in applied biology and microbiology. The candidate must be very good in English, plant bioactivity and microbiology. Contacts: Dr. Sharaf Al-Tardeh, PPU