Antimicrobial Activity of Herbal Toothpaste against Organisms Causing Dental Caries

Aim: Dental caries occurs as a result of acid produced by bacteria which destroys the enamel and underlying dentin. A study was carried out to isolate microorganisms that cause dental caries in patients belonging to different age groups and find out the antimicrobial activity of various toothpastes against them.

Study Design: Collection of samples for isolation of caries causing organisms, to identify them using biochemical tests and test the activity of herbal toothpastes against them.

Place and duration of study: Samples were collected from Krish Multispeciality Clinic and Prashanth Dental Clinic, Nagole between June’2016 – December’2017 and worked on, at Microbiology Department, St. Francis College for women, Hyderabad.

Methodology: Ten samples of each age group from 10-20 yrs., 20-40 yrs. and 40-60 yrs. were isolated. The organisms were identified by carrying out various biochemical tests according to Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology and molecular characterization based on 16s rRNA typing. Identified organisms were used to test the antimicrobial activity of herbal toothpastes by employing agar well diffusion method. ANOVA is used for statistical analysis.

Results and Conclusion: Patanjali herbal products like Dantkanti are gaining lot of importance and have become a part of life of common man because of their effectivity. Our studies revealed that out of the various toothpastes tested, Patanjali toothpaste had good antimicrobial activity against all the isolates. On comparative analysis of f-ratio and P significant value (< .05.) of all pairs, it is observed that Patanjali has good antimicrobial activity against all isolates tested. The efficacy of Meswak is almost similar to that of Patanjali.