1- Good oral hygiene with frequent brushing and flossing .
2- Topical use of antiseptics by oral gargle and mouth rinses to reduce the bacterial load in the oral cavity .
3- Sometimes antibiotics are used to destroy cariogenic bacteria .
4- Mechanical removal of dental plaque and calculus .
5- Modification of diet to avoid or reduce fermentable sugar .
Flouride has more than one mechanism of action :
(a) At low concentration :
Flouride inhibit bacterial enzymes ( enolase ) that ferment sugar to produce acids (b) At high concentration :
it inhibits bacterial growth .
(c) At higher concentration :
it units with the organic matter of the enamel ( hydroxyappatite ) to produce flouroapatite which is more hard .
(d) Chronic high concentration :
produce blackening of the teeth ( flourosis ) .
Strept.mutans are the important organism causing dental caries , so trials have been made to produce vaccines containing this organism in a dead form or its products to enhance the immune response of the body against this organism .
The vaccines available are :
(a) Formalin-killed suspension of Strept.mutans in a capsule taken orally .
(b) The enzyme dextran sucrase produced by Strept.mutans .
Other trial is giving antibodies against Strept.mutans .
