Objective: Then, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of six periodontal pathogens C.rectus, P.gingivalis, A. actinomycetemcomitans, P.intermedia, T.forsythia and T.denticola recruiting children from 6 months to 2.5 years of age, descendents of periodontally healthy and diseased mothers.
Method: Saliva samples were collected from 30 pairs diseased mother/child and 32 pairs healthy mother/child and analyzed by PCR.
Result: Periodontitis mothers tended to show higher frequency of bacterial species in comparison to healthy mothers. P.gingivalis (80,0% vs. 43,75%), P.intermedia (66,7% vs. 34,3%), T.forsythia (100,0% vs. 59,3%) and T.denticola (96,7% vs. 65,6%) differed between maternal periodontal statuses while A. actinomycetemcomitans (33,3% vs. 31,2%) and C.rectus (100,0% vs. 90,6%) did not. P.intermedia was not detected in diseased mothers’ offspring and P.intermedia and T.denticola were not detected in healthy mothers’ offspring. Only T.denticola (40,0% vs. 0,0%) was more frequent in periodontitis mothers’ offspring. The other bacterial frequency was similar between groups of children [A. actinomycetemcomitans (6,6% vs. 3,1%), P.gingivalis (6,6% vs. 9,3%), P.intermedia (0,0% vs. 0,0%), T.forsythia (10,0% vs. 3,12%) e C.rectus (60,0% vs. 56,2%)].
Conclusion: There was a tendency of higher bacterial frequency among periodontitis mothers; however, these maternal increased numbers not always was accompanied by higher bacterial frequency in their offspring. Offspring of periodontitis mothers showed higher frequency of one key pathogen suggesting further investigations related to periodontal bacterial colonization in early childhood.