Are Probiotics Effective in Preventing Dental Caries? – A Narrative Review
R. Shenbagam
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Sri Venkateswara Dental College and Hosptal, Chennai, India.
Saravanan Poorni *
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Sri Venkateswara Dental College and Hosptal, Chennai, India and Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, India.
Nivedhitha M.S.
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai – 600077, Tamil Nadu, India.
Manali Ramakrishnan Srinivasan
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Sri Venkateswara Dental College and Hosptal, Chennai, India.
V. Rakshagan
Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai – 600077, Tamil Nadu, India.
M. Jeevitha
Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai – 600077, Tamil Nadu, India.
Selvaraj Jeyaraman
Department of Biochemistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Changing lifestyle has resulted in worsening of oral health in people of all age groups. One such common oral health disease is said to be dental caries. There are various modalities in the prevention of dental caries which include proper maintenance of oral hygiene, fluoride application, chemoprophylactic agents, antimicrobial peptides and sugar substitutes. The increasing global problems with the traditional disease management and prevention strategies have prompted the investigators to be in constant search of alternatives for managing the oral health issues. Recently probiotics have been used as an alternative for caries prevention that has gained a lot of importance in improving oral health. The effect of probiotics on dental caries and its related risk factors is gaining momentum in the current era. This narrative review summarised the available literature on different probiotic strains and their mechanism of action and future scope of probiotics in caries prevention.
Keywords: Bifidobacterium, dental caries, oral health, probiotics, lactobacillus, streptococcus