Microbiologic and molecular diagnostic of cariogenic bacteria in pregnant women from the Araucania Region of Chile

Dental caries is a transmissible infectious disease in which Streptococcus mutans is a principal protagonist. Although it is widely believed that pregnancy is harmful to teeth, the effect of pregnancy on the development of caries is not clear. Considering this situation, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the levels of infection and to differentiate bacterial species with cariogenic potential in pregnant women from the Araucania region in Chile, by bacteriological and molecular analysis. In this work, we evaluated 51 pregnant women aged 15 to 40 years. The results show that 100% of women are infected by mutans streptococci Group, and 70.6% exhibited high levels of infection (> 500.000 cfu/mL). The molecular analysis shows that Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus frequencies were 92.1% and 1.9%, respectively. In conclusion, our data suggest that pregnant women are a high risk group for caries development.