Evaluation of lysozyme concentration and S.mutans colonies on children with early childhood caries and caries free after using 0.1% lysozyme toothpaste

The prevalence of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in various countries is quite high, even at the age of 2 years the incidence is quite apprehensive. One simple and effective ECC alternative prevention is tooth brushing by using lysozyme toothpaste. Lysozyme can kill S.mutans bacteria by hydrolizing bacterial cell walls. This study aims to compare the salivary lysozyme concentration and the number of S.mutans colonies between pre-treatment and after 1 month tooth brushing by using 0.1% lysozyme toothpaste. This research is single masked clinical trial. The sample size of this study is 73 under 3 years old children, consisting of 31 caries-free children and 42 ECC children. The research subjects are obtained from Posyandu in Medan Selayang and Medan Johor District by using purposive sampling. Criteria for ECC is based on the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD). Data analysis use Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests because the data are not normally distributed, p < 0.05. The result shows that after tooth brushing by using lysozyme toothpaste, reduction of lysozyme concentration was detected on both groups of caries-free and ECC children compared to the state before tooth brushing, but it is not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Similiarly, reduction in number of S.mutans was detected after tooth brushing by using lysozyme toothpaste, although it is not statistically significant (p > 0.05). As conclusion, lysozyme toothpaste can reduce the growth of S.mutans bacteria, but is only inhibitory or bacteriostatic. Therefore, lysozyme toothpaste can be used as an alternative of caries prevention for early childhood.