Antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles against Streptococcus mutans

Dental caries is a very infectious disease; in humans, 95% of the worldwide population is affected. The microorganism associated with dental caries is Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). Although several mechanisms for its control have been used, its prevalence and incidence are still high. New alternatives are silver nanoparticles due to their antibacterial effect. In this work, we determined the antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles on S. mutans. Three sizes of silver nanoparticles were used to find minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) in S. mutans using reference and clinical stocks. Kruskal-Wallis and U of Mann-Whitney statistical tests were applied. We found bactericidal effect for the three groups, with significant statistical differences between them. Our results agree with those already reported by several authors. This study concludes that silver nanoparticles present antibacterial activity on S. mutans and this property is better when the particle size is diminished. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.