Mutans Streptococci in Interproximal Plaque from Amalgam and Glass lonomer Restorations

Abstract

Interproximal plaque samples were collected from newly made class II conventional conservative amalgam (Dispersalloy) and glass ionomer (Ketac Silver) tunnel restorations in 20 adolescents. The percentage viable count of mutans streptococci in samples from glass ionomer restorations (mean 3.1%, median 0.7%) was significantly lower (p less than 0.05) than in samples from amalgam restorations (mean 5.7%, median 3.1%). This suggests that plaque formed on such restorations might have a lower potential to induce recurrent caries than plaque formed on amalgam restorations.