Objectives: Candida is the cause of oral soft tissue infection among immunocompromised individuals and has also been implicated in caries. The objective of this study was to determine the presence of candida in carious dentine and whether the genotypes of Candida albicans that colonise dentine and oral soft tissue correspond. Methods: A swab was taken of the dorsal surface of the tongue and carious dentine collected with a sterile toothpick from 362 children aged between 2 and 8, attending the George Mukhari paediatric clinic and MEDUNSA CAMPUS CAMPUSOral Health Centre. Specimens were cultured on CHROMAgar and in cases where yeast growth was obtained from both specimens, 28 pairs of C. albicans isolates were selected for DNA fingerprinting. Histological sections of extracted teeth from these children were examined for fungal elements in the dentine. Results: C. albicans was cultured from both the tongue and dentine in 151(47.7%) of cases. Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) and silver staining of decalcified sections of extracted carious teeth revealed fungal elements penetrating deep into the dentine, including cases from which no yeasts were cultured from either the dentine of oral soft tissue. The DNA fingerprinting patterns of only one pair (3.6%) of isolates did not correspond, while one pair differed at a single band position in the hypervariable region, characteristic of microevolutionary change. Conclusions: Carious teeth can serve as a reservoir of the most common causative agent of oral candidiasis and in the majority of cases it was the same genotype of C. albicans that occurred in dentine and on the oral soft tissue. |