Molecular detection of E. faecalis in oral samples of a population associated with secondary endodontic infection

Aim: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Enterococcus faecalis in samples of oral rinse and tongue dorsum of endodontic patients with secondary/persistent infections (EPSI) using the PCR method. Methodology: Oral rinse samples (ORS) and tongue swab samples (TSS) of 22 patients (EPSI group) and 32 healthy individuals (control group) were collected. DNA isolation from the TSS and ORS samples was performed using the modified classical phenol-chloroform and chloroform method. To detect E. faecalis strains directly from the TSS and ORS samples, the 310 base pair (bp) segment of the 16S rDNA of the E. faecalis genome was amplified by PCR using specific primers. The prevalence of E. faecalis was compared between healthy and sick individuals using the Chi-square test, significance was set at p<0.05. Results: In the ORS samples, there was a significant difference between the healthy individuals (n = 11, 34%) and the EPSI group (n = 15, 68%) in terms of the presence of E. faecalis (p = 0.026). In the TSS, the presence of E. faecalis was also investigated, and a significant difference was found between healthy individuals (n = 3, 9%) and the EPSI group (n = 11, 50%) (p = 0.001). In the EPSI group, no statistically significant difference was present in the prevalence rate of E. faecalis between the samples of ORS (68%) and TSS (50%) (p = 0.358). Conclusion: The prevalence of E. faecalis was found to be statistically significantly higher in multi-site oral samples of a population with secondary endodontic infection than healthy individuals.   How to cite this article: Kesim B, Tezcan Ülger S, Cudal H, Aslan G, Ersoy L, Aslan T, Küçük MÖ. Molecular detection of E. faecalis in oral samples of a population associated with secondary endodontic infection. Int Dent Res 2021;11(3):180-4. https://doi.org/10.5577/intdentres.2021.vol11.no3.7   Linguistic Revision: The English in this manuscript has been checked by at least two professional editors, both native speakers of English.