Background and Aim: Identification of harbored bacteria and their resistance profile is crucial to manage endodontic treatment. This study aimed to assess the nutritional types and drug resistance profiling of microbiota harboring dental root canal of patients with apical periodontitis.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study identified bacteria and their resistance profile in 10 samples taken from acute and chronic periodontitis patients using the VITEK 2 system.
Results: A total of 49 bacteria belonging to 24 species were recovered from two sets of 10 samples together with a higher bacterial diversity in chronic periodontitis condition. Enterococcus, Clostridium, Streptococcus, Prevotella and Propionibacterium bacterial species were identified in both cases but Streptococcus, Enterococcus, and Propionibacterium were more prevalent in chronic patients. The prevalence of facultative anaerobes (51.02%) was the highest, and that of obligate aerobes (4.08%) was the lowest; obligate anaerobes accounted for 16.33%, while strict anaerobes accounted for 20.4% in both conditions. Microaerophilic organisms (Lactobacillus species) were found only in persistent apical periodontitis (8.16%); whereas, aerobes were predominant (7.14%) in acute conditions. The majority of the strains were resistant to tetracycline, cefoxitin, and oxacillin but the members of the four predominant genera (Enterococcus, Clostridium, Streptococcus, Propionibacterium) were resistant to penicillin, cefotaxime and cefoxitin. Very few strains exhibited resistance to ofloxacin, vancomycin and gentamycin.
Conclusion: The present results showed that acute and chronic root canal infections were polymicrobial infections, with Enterococcus, Streptococcus and Propionibacterium species being the predominant ones. These predominant bacteria were resistant to penicillin, cefotaxime and cefoxitin.