ASSESSING THE ORAL HEALTH RECORDS AND ANTIBIOGRAM OF ANAEROBIC BACTERIA ISOLATES FROM PATIENTS VISITING DENTAL UNIT

(A CASE STUDY OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, ZARIA)

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Author

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Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

ABSTRACT
Oral health can be a good indicator of general health and has been linked to systemic diseases, therefore, maintaining good oral hygiene is important. Oral infections are polymicrobial with dental caries and periodontal disease being the major oral conditions affecting the public. A retrospective study on patients with orodontal conditions in the dental clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Medical Centre, Zaria between January 1st, 2015 and December 31st, 2017 was performed. The medical records of patients diagnosed to have dental conditions were collated. Also prospective study assessed the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among the common bacterial isolates associated with periodontal disease from oral rinses of patients in the clinic (3months) using standard microbiological methods. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates was evaluated using the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing 2018 recommended guidelines. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests was used to determine the significant differences (P<0.05) where appropriate. Out of 10364 visits, prevalence of periodontal disease (65.8%) and dental carries (34.2%) was observed with a significant difference of (P=0.000). A high percentage of male patients 60.5% was observed compared to female patients 39.5% with a significant difference of (P=0.004) was recorded. Most predominate patients were adults. A total of 131 samples of patients with dental conditions was collected with about 40 anaerobic Gram negative bacteria isolated. Prevotella intermedia (18%) and Bacteriode fragilis (18%) were the most frequently isolated bacteria, followed by Fusobacterium nucleatum (10%), Fusobacterium varidium and Prevotella oralis (8%) and Fusobacterium mortiferum, Bacteriode stercoris and Porphyromonas asaccharolytica (6%). High resistance of isolated bacteria to selected antibiotics was observed in metronidazole and chloramphenicol (100%) and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid ix (62.5%). About 77.5% of the bacteria isolates were biofilm producers and 22.5% non-biofilm producers. Nine of the anaerobic Gram negative bacteria isolates were characterized genotypically. The resistance gene blaTEM was observed in only one bacterial isolate while cat gene was conserved in all the nine isolates characterized genotipically. The nim gene was virtually absent. This study showed a high prevalence of oral disease among tested patients with adults and male gender preponderance. The antimicrobial resistance rates observed was high and may pose a serious therapeutic challenge to the management of periodontal disease. Preventive measures and sustainable therapeutic strategies for oral health services advocated.