Antibiogram types of bacterial isolates from dental caries patients attending clinic at a teaching hospital in Nigeria

Abstract

Around the world dental caries is amongst the commonest disease affecting all age groups and yet seen by all as less common and severe; especially among Africans. Worrisome, our recent study showed isolated dental caries bacteria to be resistant to available antibiotics. In this study, antibiogram typing of bacteria isolated from dental caries of patients attending the dental clinic at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Nigeria were investigated. The study involves 223 bacteria positive samples (Streptococcus mutans = 150; Streptococcus sobrinus = 36; Lactobacillus acidophilus = 22; Streptococcus salivarius = 10; Streptococcus mitis = 4) collected and screened against 24 antibiotics divided into 8 groups of 3 each. Antibiogram study was conducted using Ajumali’s mnemonic coding and the results were presented in tables. The Ajumali’s mnemonic coding showed that no two strains of Streptococcus salivarius and Streptococcus mitis were repeated. However, 18.8%, 43.71%, and 61.11% of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus mutans, and Streptococcus sobrinus strain respectively presented repeated Ajumali’s mnemonic codes. The “00000005, 02000005, 03010005, 01010005 and 63112005” mnemonic codes appear in both S. mutans and S. sobrinus isolates, “02000004’’ appears in both L. acidophilus and S. mutans, 03000005 appears in both S. salivarius and S. mutans and 03110005 in S. mitis and S. sobrinus. The repetition of mnemonic codes from L. acidophilus, S. mutans, and S. sobrinus isolates and the appearance of codes between isolates indicate that some isolates may have strains with phenotypical similarities.