A systematic review of randomized trials on effects of probiotic on oral Candida

• Main Authors: Swikant Shah, Hemamalini Rath
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry
• Subjects: candidiasis; clinical trial; mouth; oral health; probiotics; randomized controlled trial
• Online Access: http://www.jiaphd.org/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2020;volume=18;issue=1;spage=13;epage=24;aulast=Shah
• ISSN: 2319-5932; 2350-0484

Oral candidiasis is caused by an unregulated overgrowth of candidal species which remains in saprophytic form under healthy conditions. Probiotics can be a biologically acceptable alternative in promoting beneficial microbial flora. This review aims to provide a potential evidence for an effect of probiotic supplementation on oral candidal count as assessed by laboratory culture in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in human. PubMed (1975 to till date), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Till August 2016, Issue– 8) and Google Scholar were searched. Randomized controlled clinical trials which compared the probiotics used as single or mixture of strains, any dosage regimen, and by any form of edible or palatable vehicle either with a placebo or other controls were selected to assess the change in oral candidal count. All the in vitro studies, animal experiments, and clinical trials which had no control group/groups in the parallel arm were excluded from our final review. We screened titles and abstracts, obtained full reports of relevant trials and independently appraised them for eligibility. A total number of nine studies were included in this review and JADAD scale was used for quality assessment. In all the included studies, oral candidal count was measured by counting the CFUs after culturing the candidal colonies on selective culture mediums. Overall, this review demonstrated that there is a lack of evidence for effects of probiotics on oral Candida in lower age group but has consistent results in elderly individuals reducing high candidal count compared to any control group.