Microbiological assessment of saliva from children subsequent to atraumatic restorative treatment (ART)

The aim of this study was to evaluate mutans streptococci (MS) in the saliva following use of the atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) technique.

Sixteen 5-7-year-old children had restorations using the ART technique and employing FUJI IX glass-ionomer cement as the restorative material. Decayed tissue was manually excavated without local anaesthesia, being careful to avoid discomfort. Saliva was collected for microbiological assessment using Kit Caritest MS before treatment, one week, four weeks and one year after ART was used. The procedure for saliva collection, incubation, storage, and comparative reading of MS counts followed the manufacturer's instructions. The data were statistically analysed, using non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks and Sign Test) at a significance level of 0.05.

The results showed a significant reduction of MS levels in saliva when comparing the results before treatment with those obtained one week (95.95%; P = 0.003), four weeks (93.27%; P = 0.000) and one year (95.56%; P = 0.002) after ART.

It is concluded from the results that the ART technique proved satisfactory and appeared to have produced a significant and sustained reduction in levels of MS. These results need to be confirmed in a larger study.