REVITALIZING SENIOR SMILES: INVESTIGATING ORAL PROBIOTICS FOR ENHANCED HEALTH

Abstract

Recently, a group of live bacteria known as probiotics have been added to foods to utilise their benefits for human health. Probiotics are living bacteria present in the oral cavity, gut as well as intestine and also these are taken as food and oral supplements. More than 12.3% of the population consists of elderly people and suffer from various disorders due to constant change in the micro biota with body and mouth. Oral health issues are the common problems viz., Periodontitis, gingivitis, oral cancer, bad breath, tooth loss, tooth decay etc are the common dental problems. The increasing knowledge on oral diseases which are preventable by alteration of the oral biofilm has made way for the use of probiotic bacteria in dentistry. The beneficial effects of probiotics on oral cavity related with the maintenance of oral health especially in elderly people as these are the conventional option that can access easily. Probiotics work naturally against these colonising pathogens in the mouth through their mechanism of action. Probiotic strains like Lactobacilli, Bifidiobacterium, Lactococci, Streptococci, Enterococci etc are usually present in the oral cavity. Organism should possess several qualities to be a good probiotic strain. Probiotics deals with several oral disorders like dental caries, halitosis, periodontal diseases etc. There are many oral probiotic products that are currently available in the market, and there is a large demand for the products similar to them and also newer ones. The oral probiotic study helps to understand the effect of oral probiotics on oral health, risk factors, safety, usage, occurrence as well as its future applications.