Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Dec;28(8):2453-2464.
doi: 10.1007/s10123-025-00696-x. Epub 2025 Aug 4.

Differential susceptibility of Streptococcus dentisani to dental surfaces: An atomic force microscopy study

Brianda Karina Félix-Sicairos  1 , Rita Elizabeth Martínez Martínez  1   2 , Eleazar Samuel Kolosovas-Machuca  3   4 , Jaime Ruiz-García  5 , Alex Mira  6 , José Luis Cuellar Camacho  7   8 , Saray Aranda Romo  9   10
Affiliations

Differential susceptibility of Streptococcus dentisani to dental surfaces: An atomic force microscopy study

Brianda Karina Félix-Sicairos et al. Int Microbiol. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Given frequent dental restorations, understanding the interactions of probiotic Streptococcus dentisani with enamel and dental materials is key, in contrast to the well-studied Streptococcus mutans. This knowledge is vital for the potential applications in promoting oral health of S. dentisani.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate and compare S. mutans and S. dentisani initial adhesion, proliferation, and colonization on dental enamel and commonly used dental materials: nickel-chromium alloy, porcelain, lithium disilicate, autocured, and thermocured acrylics, using atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Methods: The study utilized S. mutans ATCC 35665 and S. dentisani CECT 7746 cultured in brain-heart infusion (BHI) broth. The dental substrates used consisted of enamel obtained from healthy unerupted third molars, nickel-chromium alloy (Ni-Cr), porcelain, lithium disilicate, and both autocured and thermocured acrylics. All simples were cut into 1 cm pieces and subsequently mounted for the AFM analysis. Bacterial suspensions were incubated on these surfaces for 24 h. Surface topography and bacterial adhesion, proliferation, and colonization were analyzed using AFM in contact mode. Roughness parameters (Ra, Rrms, RMax) were quantified from AFM images using the Nanoscope analysis software.

Results: Atomic force microscopy analysis revealed that after a 24-h incubation, S. mutans demonstrated a superior capacity to adhere, proliferate, and colonize all tested substrates compared to S. dentisani. Streptococcus dentisani was found to be more susceptible to the bactericidal effects of the materials. Notably, porcelain and lithium disilicate surfaces exhibited strong antimicrobial activity. On porcelain, no intact S. dentisani cells were observed, only bacterial debris. Similarly, lithium disilicate showed evidence of bacterial decomposition for both strains, suggesting a potent bactericidal effect.

Conclusion: For the first time, our data revealed that S. dentisani exhibited a reduced capacity for dental surface adhesion, proliferation, and colonization across all tested substrates, compared to S. mutans.

Keywords: Streptococcus dentisani; Streptococcus mutans; Atomic force microscopy; Bacteria; Dental caries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Stomatology, belonging to the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, with approval number: CEI-FE-019–021. Consent to participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Aas JA, Griffen AL, Dardis SR, Lee AM, Olsen I, Dewhirst FE, ... Paster BJ (2008) Bacteria of dental caries in primary and permanent teeth in children and young adults. J Clin Microbiol 46(4):1407–1417
    1. Al-Johani H, Haider J, Satterthwaite J, Silikas N (2024) Lithium silicate-based glass ceramics in dentistry: a narrative review. Prosthesis 6(3):478–505 - DOI
    1. Baker JL, Faustoferri RC, Quivey RG Jr (2016) Acid-adaptive mechanisms of Streptococcus mutans—the more we know, the more we don’t. Mol Oral Microbiol 32(2):107 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Beaussart A, El-Kirat-Chatel S (2019) Microbial adhesion and ultrastructure from the single-molecule to the single-cell levels by Atomic Force Microscopy. Cell Surface 5:100031 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Bedoya C, Angarita M, Aristizabal E, López P, Bustamante J (2023) Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus dentisani in dental biofilm of children with different caries status: a pilot study. Braz Dent Sci 26(3):e3782 - DOI

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources