Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Biology

Project Advisor 1

Brooke Jude

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Although people have become conditioned to believe that dental care is a luxury, dental health is essential to maintaining good overall health. As oral bacteria colonize within the mouth, plaque build up can cause irreversible effects such as dental caries, periodontal disease, tooth loss, gum extraction, and even death. Therefore, in order to maintain proper oral health, oral disease prevention must be aimed at controlling dental plaque. Today, many anti-plaque and antibacterial adjuvants are synthetically made in pharmaceutical labs; however, these treatments are becoming less effective as bacteria develop antimicro- bial resistance. Studies have shown that many natural antibiotic producing bacteria are found throughout various soil environments. This study will assess if antibiotic producing soil microbes are naturally powerful enough to inhibit the growth of S. mutans, S. mitis, S. salivarius and S. bovis, with hopes of developing natural antimicrobial treatments. Through zone of inhibition assays, results demonstrated that soil microbes could indeed be further examined for their inhibitory effects toward dental microbial overgrowth.

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