Prevalence of Actinomyces israelii, A. naeslundii, Bacterionema matruchotii, and Candida albicans in Selected Areas of the Oral Cavity and Saliva

¹ National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bethesda, Maryland

Actinomyces israelii was recovered in culture from 48 per cent of 368 non-salivary oral samples from 90 individuals and from 28.9 per cent of 90 salivary samples from 55 of the same individuals; A. naeslundii from 23.1 and 12.2 per cent, respectively; B. matruchotii from 19.3 and 4.4 per cent, respectively; and C. albicans from 18.2 and 34.4 per cent, respectively. It was found, for each organism studied, that the prevalence, as determined by cultural methods, was dependent on the type of material sampled, the area from which the sample was taken, the type of oral disease present, and the individual. In 40-50 per cent of plaques (cultured on Sabouraud's agar or on blood agar plates incubated both aerobically and anaerobically) from early or shallow carious lesions or material from deep cavities in 4 cases of rampant caries in children, A. israelii was the predominant organism. Streptococci were the predominant organisms isolated from approximately 10 per cent of such plaques. The significance of this finding, if any, remains to be determined.