[Bacteriological study of gingivitis in pubertal children. 2. Subgingival microflora cultivable on the nonselective...

The present study involved cultural and microscopic characterization of the subgingival microorganisms of pubertal children with gingivitis. Samples were obtained from eight children 12-14 years of age. Gram-positive organisms made up 56% of the isolates and included mainly Actinomyces israelii, Actinomyces naeslundii. Gram-negative anaerobic rods constituted 25% of the isolates and Bacteroides intermedius (9.7%) was most predominant species. The selective media permitted significantly lower recovery of Actinomyces spp. and Capnocytophaga spp. than nonselective blood agar medium. However, sixty-nine percents of isolates were cultured on the selective media employed in the present study. These results suggest that the subgingival microflora of gingivitis in pubertal children may be similar to those of adult gingivitis and that the use of these six selective media makes it possible to enumerate predominant cultivable microorganisms in subgingival area of pubertal children with gingivitis.