Abstract
BACKGROUND: Extrinsic black stain (EBS) is characterized by discrete dark dots or lines on the tooth surface. The relationship between EBS and oral microbiota in children remains elusive. The aim of this study was to compare dental plaque microbiome in EBS children with that in EBS-free children in the primary dentition. METHODS: The Illumina MiSeq sequencing technique was utilized in the cross-sectional pilot study to investigate the diversity and composition of the supragingival plaque microbiota from 10 EBS-positive and 10 EBS-free children. The results were analysed with nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson Chi-Square test, Fisher's Exact test and one-way ANOVA tests. RESULTS: We identified 13 different phyla, 22 classes, 33 orders, 54 families, 105 genera, and 227 species from a total of 52,646 high-quality sequences. Between two groups, no statistical differences were observed in the estimators of community richness and diversity at 97% similarity, as well as in the Unweighted Unifrac principal co-ordinates analysis (PCoA). At the species level, higher level of relative abundance of Actinomyces naeslundii and lower level of relative abundance of a species belonging to Candidate_division_TM7 was observed in dental plaque of EBS-positive subjects, compared to dental plaque of EBS-free subjects (P < 0.05). This indicated that some species might be involved in the EBS process. CONCLUSION: Changes in dental plaque microbiota is possibly relevant to the process of EBS in the primary dentition.