fa Oral medicine Oral medicine Original article Original article <p dir="RTL"></p><p dir="RTL"></p> <p><strong>Background and aim:</strong> Oral candidiasis is the most common fungal disease, and it is often considered as a local opportunistic infection. Oral candidiasis is usually treated with local use of antifungal medications. Since probiotic bacteria have the ability to inhibit the growth of pathogens&nbsp;and modulate human immune responses, they could provide new possibilities in antifungal therapy. The aim&nbsp;of the present study was to examine the effect of probiotic yoghurt on the frequency of salivary candida.</p> <p><strong>Materials and methods:</strong> This randomized double-blind crossover clinical trial involved 34 healthy adults divided to two groups: 17 subjects in case group (probiotic yoghurt) and 17 subjects in control group (regular yoghurt). At the beginning of the experiment and after 3 weeks of intervention (consumption of regular or probiotic yoghurt), saliva samples were collected from both groups and candida colonies were counted. After a two-week wash out period, the groups were interchanged (crossover study design), and the sampling process was repeated. The data were analyzed using Mann-U-Whitney and Chi-square tests. The level of significance was set at&nbsp;p<0/05.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> Variations of salivary candida equaled 1.8&plusmn;9.3 cfu/ml in regular yoghurt group and -3.8&plusmn;7.9 cfu/ml in probiotic yoghurt group (p=0.01). The amount of salivary candida decreased in 47% of the cases in probiotic yoghurt group and in 29.4% of the cases in&nbsp;regular yoghurt group (p=0.07).</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The results of the present study showed that short-term consumption of probiotic yoghurt decreases&nbsp;the frequency of salivary candida colonies after 3 weeks.</p> Oral candidiasis, probiotic, probiotic yoghurt 1 7 http://jrdms.dentaliau.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-554-1&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 S Lesan siminlesan@yahoo.com 10031947532846009909 10031947532846009909 No Assistant Professor, Oral medicine Dept, Dental Branch of Tehran Islamic Azad university, Tehran, Iran F Hajifattahi dr_h_fattahi@yahoo.com 10031947532846009910 10031947532846009910 Yes Assistant professor, Oral medicine Dept, Dental Branch of Tehran Islamic Azad university, Tehran, Iran M Rahbar 10031947532846009911 10031947532846009911 No Dentist S Mohammadi 10031947532846009912 10031947532846009912 No Dentist