Abstract:

Objective

To explore the relationship between Candida albicans and early childhood caries （ECC） by detecting Candida albicans from dental caries of children with ECC and supragingival plaque of children without caries， and comparing the differences of the frequency of Candida albicans in urban and suburban areas in Guangzhou.

Methods

447 healthy children（aged 3-5 years） were divided into two groups： 238 children in the ECC group and 209 children in the caries-free group.A total of 363 samples collected from dental caries and supragingival plaque were cultured on CHROMagar Candida， and all the isolates were identified by germ tubes test.The χ² test was used to analyze the relationship between the isolation frequency of Candida albicans and dental caries.The Logistic regression was applied to analyze the association between dmft and the isolation frequency of Candida albicans.

Results

The frequency of Candida albicans isolated from ECC group was higher than that of the non-caries group （44.1% vs 19.2%， χ²=22.213，P ＜0.001）， and it was higher in suburban areas than that in urban areas（79.7% vs 28.0%，χ²=55.242，P ＜0.001） in the ECC group.The detection rate of Candida albicans increased 0.104 as dmft increased 2.129.（by Logistic regression analysis， P ＜0.001）.

Conclusions

There is a significant association between the presence of Candida albicans and ECC.Candida albicans may be one of the important cariogenic microorganisms in ECC.

Key words: Candida albicans, Early childhood caries, Decay missing filling tooth