EVALUATION OF CANDIDA AND ORAL MICROBES WITH OR WITHOUT USE OF DENTURES AMONG PROSTHODONTIC PATIENTS IN LAGOS, SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The presence of oral microbes in individuals that wear denture has been associated with denture stomatitis that affects the mucosa of the hard palate in contact with complete or partial dentures.
OBJECTIVES: To compare the dominant oral micro-flora between denture wearers and non-denture wearers and to analyze the bacterial composition of denture wearers.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with the total number of 94 subjects who met the inclusion criteria were grouped into denture wearers and non-denture wearers. Mucosa swabs were taken from the subjects using sterile swab; and placed immediately in Sabouraud’s dextrose (SD) agar and sent to the microbiology laboratory for analysis. Data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Association between variables was carried out using Chi-square test. The significance level adopted was 0.05.
RESULTS: The mean ages among the NDW and DW were 46.4±18.5 and 57.4±18.2 respectively. The highest oral microbes 6(12.8%)
isolated among the DW was Candida albicans whereas the highest 15(31.9%) oral microbes isolated among NDW was Staphylococcus
aureus. There was a statistically significant association between the number of subjects who presented with Candida albicans and
microbial load among the denture wearers and non-denture wearers (P=0.001) and (P= 0.047) respectively
CONCLUSIONS: The dominant oral micro-flora among denture wearers was Candida albicans. The bacterial composition of the denture wearers and non-wearers were Streptococci mutans and Staphylococcus aureus respectively.