The Role of Mastication in Improving TGF- β Levels on the Inhibition of Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus mutans in Gingivitis

Dental plaque in gingivitis containing 56% gram-positive bacteria and 44% gram-negative bacteria. The most dominant gram-positive species are Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus mutans. Moreover, Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGF- ) is a peptide for regulating proliferation, differentiation, and mortality of various cells, that can be increasingly secreted by parasympathetic stimulation through a mastication. To evaluate the effect of mastication intervention to TGF-β levels, the number of Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus mutans, and the correlation between TGF-β levels and the number of Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus mutans. 42 men of 17-22 years old were divided into 3 groups: group of healthy with mastication (G1); group of gingivitis with mastication (G2); and group of gingivitis without mastication (G3). The subjects who got a treatment had to chew normal gums (equal size, without sweetener and tastener) and did the mastication for a minute as much as 32 times, every morning after waking up in a week. After a week, the subject’s saliva sample was collected and the TGF-β levels, the number of S. sanguinis and S. mutans colony were counted with ELISA and RT PCR. The data was statistically analyzed with Mann Whitney U-test and Spearman’s correlation test. There was a significant difference of TGF-β levels on all groups (p<0.05) and the number of S. sanguinis between group G1:G3 and group G2:G3 (p<0.05). The numbers of S. mutans did not show any difference among all groups (p>0.05). Besides that, there was a correlation between the increased of TGF-β levels to the decreased number of S. sanguinis (p<0.05). Mastication can increase TGF-β levels and related with a decreasing quantity