In vitro efficacy of five pediatric toothpastes in the inhibition of Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175.

Abstract

The present in vitro study compared the inhibitory action of five pediatric toothpastes against Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional, comparative and experimental study. The microorganism Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175 was inoculated onto solid culture medium of Müeller-Hinton supplemented with blood, then the plates were inoculated with five pediatric toothpastes: Oral B Stages, Colgate Smiles, Aquafresh My Little Teeth, Dentito and Denture Kids. Samples were incubated at 37°C for 48 hours. Subsequently the inhibition halos were measured; the experiment was repeated 20 times for each sample. Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA complemented with Tukey's test. Results: Oral B Stages yielded a mean inhibitory halo of 23.2mm, Colgate Smiles an average of 21.7mm, Aquafresh My Little Teeth of 13.6mm, Dentito of 18.5mm, and Denture Kids a mean of 23.0mm. When performing the ANOVA test, it was found that there was a significant difference in the inhibitory action of pediatric toothpastes (p<0.005) and when using Tukey's multiple comparison test, Oral B and Denture Kids presented similar inhibitory action. Conclusion: All toothpastes presented inhibitory action against Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175. A significant difference between their effectiveness was observed. Oral B Stages showed the greatest degree of inhibition.

Keywords

• toothpaste
• streptococcus mutans
• culture media
• child
• cross-sectional studies
• analysis of variance