Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the caries prevalence in Down's Syndrome (DS) with healthy controls of the same age and sex and also to determine the etiologic factors of the caries progression by using microbiological and molecular biological methods. Methods: Sixty children with DS and sixty-four healthy children aged between 7-12 years old were participated in this study. A clinical examination was carried out by using DMFS index. Stimulated saliva was collected from the subjects and cultivated on TYCSB agar for the detection of S.mutans counts and isolation. Molecular biological assessment was conducted by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) using two informative primers, OPA-05 and OPA-13 to determine the genotypic diversity of S.mutans between the two groups. All data were analyzed statistically by using t-test and chi-square test. Results: The caries prevalence was found significantly lower in DS group and the low colonization of S.mutans was also detected in this group but this difference was not statistically significant. Genotypic diversities of S.mutans were found in DS group in comparison with the healthy group by using AP-PCR technique. Conclusion: As a conclusion, the low caries prevalence in DS subjects could be explained by the relation of the different genotypes of S.mutans.

Back to the Scientific Program Program
Back to the Joint Meeting of the Continental European, Israeli, and Scandinavian (NOF) Divisions of the IADR (August 25 -- 28, 2004)

Top Level Search