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Volatile Sulfur Compounds and their Effects on Streptococcus mutans Biofilm

Volatile sulfur compounds (VSC) are produced by certain anaerobic bacteria known to cause halitosis in the oral cavity. Porphyromonas gingivalis produces VSC and causes halitosis and periodontal disease. Streptococcus mutans is a facultative anaerobic bacterium that is most commonly known for causing dental caries in the oral cavity. No research has been reported indicating a connection between S. mutans and VSC. An observation was made by Dr. Richard Gregory and Ph.D. student Ruijie Huang that when an S. mutans culture was left in an anaerobic environment with P. gingivalis, the growth of S. mutans appeared to be inhibited. This study explored that observation using not only P. gingivalis culture supernatant containing VSC but also other VSC, such as DTT, and 2ME to demonstrate that VSC inhibit the growth of S. mutans biofilm using total growth and biofilm formation after crystal violet staining. The results were read using a spectrophotometer to read the total growth and biofilm formation. These results indicate that S. mutans total growth and biofilm is significantly inhibited (p<0.05) by the presence of VSC. Results also establish that different VSC inhibit S. mutans depending on the amount of sulfur in each agent; however, each agent greatly reduced the amount of S. mutans biofilm. Due to these results, one can conclude that there is an inhibitory relationship between VSC and S. mutans. A person with a major case of halitosis or a person who has periodontal disease would most likely have little to no evidence of dental caries at that time.