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Objective Early childhood caries (ECC) is closely related to the disorders of oral microbiota. Probiotics antagonize pathogenic bacteria and regulate the composition of the microbiota. We aimed to investigate the effects of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum CCFM8724 on Streptococcus mutans, Candida albicans, and oral microbiota of patients. Methods Children with ECC aged 3‒6 years were randomly divided into probiotic and placebo groups in the double-blind controlled trial. The intervention and washout periods were 28 days and 14 days, respectively. On days 1 and 28, dental plaques were collected. The effects of L. plantarum CCFM8724 on the oral microbiota of patients were investigated by sequencing the V3-V4 region of 16S rDNA. On days 1, 14, 28 and 42, qPCR was used to investigate the effect of L. plantarum CCFM8724 on the amounts of S. mutans and C. albicans in the saliva of children with ECC. ResultsL. plantarum CCFM8724 significantly reduced the amounts of S. mutans and C. albicans in saliva of children with ECC (p < 0.01). After consumption of L. plantarum CCFM8724, the abundance of Firmicutes, Granulicatella and Gemella increased, whereas the abundance of Proteobacteria, Neisseria, Bifidobacterium and Catonella decreased. Conclusion: Our results emphasize that probiotics could play a beneficial role in the prevention and treatment of ECC in children from an oral microecological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus mutans is recognized as the main cause of dental caries, and the formation of a plaque biofilm is required for caries development. This study aimed to determine the inhibitory effect of Lactobacillus plantarum FB-T9 on S. mutans biofilm formation in vitro and on the prevention and treatment of dental caries in rats. During in vitro experiments, FB-T9 exhibited good bacteriostatic ability in a plate competition assay. This strain also significantly reduced the biomass and viability of S. mutans biofilms and induced structural damage during the early (6 h), middle (12 h) and late (24 h) stages of biofilm formation. In a 70-day in vivo experiment, FB-T9 significantly reduced the levels of S. mutans on the dental surfaces of rats by more than 2 orders of magnitude of the levels in the dental caries model group (p < 0.05). Moreover, FB-T9 significantly reduced the caries scores (modified Keyes scoring method) in both the prevention and treatment groups (p < 0.05) and had great colonization potential in the oral cavity. These results indicate the potential usefulness of L. plantarum FB-T9 as a probiotic for the prevention and treatment of caries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health of dental pulp tissue is critical to maintaining normal tooth function from the eruption of permanent teeth to the formation of the apex. The study evaluated the inflamed pulp response to the mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) after direct pulp capping with the mechanical pulp exposure in rats' incisor. Forty-eight mandibular central incisors of twenty-four Sprague-Dawley rats which were prepared with the cavities of one mm diameter, and the pulp exposures were randomly assigned into two groups: MTA group and calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) 2 ) group. The direct pulp capping was performed after three days and samples histological observations conduction within eight weeks. In both MTA and Ca(OH) 2 groups, dentin -like structures were observed in the pulp tissues of some teeth. The number of teeth with reparative tissue in MTA group was statistically significantly higher than that in Ca(OH) 2 group ( p = 0.041). Inflammatory cell infiltration was found in the crown pulp tissues in two groups, and no statistical difference was observed between the two groups ( p = 0.243). Pulp necrosis occurred in both groups, and there was no statistical difference between the two groups ( p = 0.622). The results in this paper suggest that MTA promotes direct pulp capping and hence has certain potential clinical applications value in the treatments for the preservation of inflamed pulp., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (©2023 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.)

Objective: Early childhood caries (ECC) negatively affects children's growth due to its close relation to an imbalance of the oral microbiota. This study aimed to evaluate the distribution of the oral microbiota in children with ECC and healthy individuals., Methods: The oral microbiota of 20 children with dental caries from both carious teeth (CC cohort) and healthy teeth (CH cohort), and the oral microbiota of 20 healthy control children (HH cohort) were subjected to 16S rDNA sequencing., Results: The results revealed significant differences between the microbial structure of the CC and CH cohorts of every child with ECC. The most common microbes were Streptococcus , Neisseria , Leptotrichia , Lautropia and Haemophilus . Specifically, the CC cohort contained Lactobacillus , Veillonella , and Prevotella 7 , the CH cohort contained Actinomyces , Bifidobacterium and Abiotrophia , and the HH cohort mainly contained Neisseria , Leptotrichia , Porphyromonas and Gemella . Lastly, we established a random forest model consisting of 10 genera ( Prevotella 7 , Actinobacillus , etc. ) which demonstrated promising clinical diagnostic ability (area under the curve (AUC) = 89.8%). These findings indicate that oral microbiota can potentially be used as therapeutic targets or diagnostic markers for the early prediction and prevention of caries in children., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (©2023 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.)