DISTRIBUTION AND TRANSMISSION OF STREPTOCOCCUS MUTANS AMONG CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHERS

Recently, the number of multi-cultural families have been on the rise for years in Korea. Although social concerns are on the increase, there is still no basic data of their oral health state. In this study, we examined the caries prevalence of mother-child pairs from some korean families and multi-cultural families, and collected some saliva from them. We evaluated Streptococcus mutans level and investigated the serotype distribution of Streptococcus mutans of them to confirm the transmission in mother-child pairs. As a results, to the Korean families, the percentages of serotype c, e, f, k were 95%, 10%, 10%, and 10%. And to the multi-cultural families, the percentages of serotype c, e, f, k were 68.8%, 31.25%, 43,75%, 18.8%. But, there is no significant relationship between the number of serotype per person, caries prevalence, and Streptococcus mutans level(p>0.05). In conclusion, there are differences of serotype distribution of Streptococcus mutans between the two families. Nevertheless, matching rate of more than one serotype between mother and their child was high (92.86%). So, vertical transmission of Streptococcus mutans in mother-child pairs could be demonstrated.