Source: J Int Oral Health 2018;10:132-7.

Aim: Oral health plays an important role in maintaining overall systemic health, and therefore, good oral health is essential for the well-being of humans. Dental caries prevalence continues to increase in many populations worldwide. Recent years, dental caries continues to be common chronic oral diseases worldwide including many Asian countries. This aim of this study was to investigate the effect of utilizing oral probiotics on the caries risk factors among high-risk caries population.

Materials and Methods: Thirty-six participants who had a high risk of caries were randomized under control and probiotic administered test group for 60 days. Caries experience, oral hygiene status, plaque accumulation, and saliva parameters related to caries were measured at days 0, 30, and 60.

Results: Among all variables, ANOVA analysis showed that oral probiotic consumption significantly reduced the plaque accumulation between days of observation in the treated group (P < 0.05) While calculus index was significantly differing from day 0 to 30 and plaque index from day 0 to 60 in the paired t-test (P < 0.05). Non-significant difference was found when comparing both variables in the treated group to the untreated group (P ≥ 0.05).

Conclusion: The results indicate that the regular use of oral probiotics reduces the plaque accumulation and calculus formation among the treated participants, and its application could be proposed as an effective agent to inhibit dental plaque accumulation as well as calculus in high caries risk participants.