Isolation and Identification of Streptococcus Mutans and Study of Biofilm Formation
Abstract: The samples were collected from soft deep caries lesion, from patients who were visited to Medical Educational Clinics of the College of Dentistry / University of Al-Kufa, during a period of five months from November 2022 to end of March 2023, provided the study's 100 participants with soft deep caries lesion specimens. The samples were grown in a number of different media. After that, they spent 18-24 hours in a (37oC) incubator. Colony morphology, microscopy, and biochemical testing were first used by scientists to identify Streptococcus mutans. Only 20% of the isolates were confirmed to be St. mutans from the 100 positive clinical samples, the automated Vitek 2 system deployed GP-ID cards including 64 biochemical assays to guarantee the isolates were indeed St. mutans. The approach promptly and accurately identified 20 distinct bacterial isolates with probabilities ranging from 94% to 99.7%. In the present study, it was used ELISA to distinguish between St. mutans isolates that produced biofilms and those that did not, by using the median values of optical density (OD) at 570 nm (> 0.240, 0.120, and 0.120), bacterial biofilms cause chronic diseases that are difficult to treat. Twenty distinct isolates were tested for their ability to form biofilm, 9(45%) were found to be strong biofilm producers, while 11(55%) were rated as moderate biofilm producers. Keyword: Streptococcus mutans, Biofilm formation, TCP method, oral cavity.