Assessment of Oral Sample Collection Technique for the Isolation of Candida albicans from Patients having Denture Stomatitis

Candida associated denture stomatitis remains the more frequent form of oral candidiasis and specifically seen among denture wearers. Denture stomatitis is inflammatory lesion of the denture bearing area caused by Candida albicans. Direct laboratory methods such as microscopy provide preliminary information about the microbial involvement in an infection, but microbial growth is usually required for definitive identification and characterization. There are number of methods used in the sample collection. This investigation has assessed the techniques used in the collection of the fungal specimen. Thirty seven patients who had Candida induced denture stomatitis were selected clinically according to Newton`s criteria. For each patient, three methods of sample collection were done to investigate the presence of Candida colony. The methods were colony forming unit, swab from palatal mucosa, swab from saliva and salivary culture. The samples were cultured in Sabouraud dextrose agar for 48 hours, then semiquantitive and quantitive measure of the colonies were assessed. The results were high significant relation between the three methods. So that, any of the three methods of oral sample collection can be used to determine oral Candida count.