Evaluation of the Interaction between the Oral Environments of Mother and Child

Abstract

It has been reported that the composition of the oral microbiome changes substantially over time, with only a few oral microbiomes becoming established in early childhood. This study was conducted on eight pairs of children and their mothers to examine factors related to the mutual influence of the oral environments of the children and their mothers during childhood. The analysis of oral microbiome by the 16S rDNA-clone library method showed that the highest percentage of streptococcus spp were detected in both children and mothers. The genera Streptococcus, Veillonella, Fusobacterium, and Schalia were detected in all subjects, both children and mothers. A comparison of the prevalence of oral bacteria using the Mann–Whitney's U test showed no significant difference between children and mothers. A single regression analysis was performed using the genus of the detected oral bacteria of the child as the objective variable and the age of the child and mother, sex of the child, mode of delivery, genus of the mother's oral bacteria, DMFT index of the mother, and number of times the child and mother brush their teeth per day as explanatory variables. Among the genera of oral bacteria detected, for the genus Rothia, maternal DMFT index was suggested to be a significant factor influencing the prevalence of Rothia in the child's oral cavity.