Effects of oral environment stabilization procedures on counts of Candida spp. in children

The effects of oral environment stabilization procedures on counts of Candida spp. have rarely been discussed, and no conclusive results are found in the literature. The aim of this study was thus to ascertain the effects of oral environment stabilization procedures with glass ionomer and zinc oxide-eugenol cements on counts of Candida spp. in the oral cavity of children. For this purpose, oral rinses of sterile phosphate-buffered saline were initially collected from 30 boys and 30 girls, positive for Candida in the saliva and aged from 4 to 10 years. Data on the initial quantity of CFU/ml of Candida were obtained. Then, the children were randomly divided into two groups and oral environment stabilization procedures were performed using zinc oxide-eugenol cement or glass ionomer cement. One week after the procedures were performed, oral rinses were collected again and final Candida counts were obtained. An expressive reduction in Candida counts was observed in both groups. The zinc oxide-eugenol and glass ionomer cements were efficient in the reduction of Candida counts and statistically significant differences were observed between initial and final counts in both groups. Considering the percentage of reduction, the zinc oxide-eugenol cement presented more favorable results, with a reduction of 70%. A reduction of 46% was observed with the use of the glass ionomer cement. According to the obtained results, we concluded that oral environment stabilization procedures were efficient in reducing Candida spp. counts, especially when the zinc oxide-eugenol cement was employed.