Prevalence of yeast species in the oral mucosa of patients with periodontal disease in the menopausal stage

Introduction: substantial, transient, physiological or pathological endocrine changes can affect periodontal condition through modulation of the inflammatory response, as well as through a direct action on periodontal pathogens. Objective: to determine the prevalence of yeast species in the oral mucosa of patients in the menopausal stage with periodontal disease. Methods: observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. Patients who attended the dental consultation, within the framework of the private practice of general dentistry, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, between March and August 2022, who were diagnosed with periodontal disease, were evaluated, which allowed obtaining a sample of 25 female patients from a universe of 50, selected from the exclusion and inclusion criteria and a simple random sampling. For statistical analysis of the data obtained, the epi-info programs and the GNU pspp version 1.4.1 and JASP 0.16.4 programs were used. Results: In 14 positive cases of yeast colonization in mucosa, 12 had positive colonization in the sulci and 2 were negative. Of the remaining 11 cases that had negative results in the mucosa, all were negative in the sulcus. No case was found in which the result was negative in the mucosa and positive in the sulcus. Oral examination revealed that 52 % of the patients had stage 2 periodontal disease and as for stages 1 and 3, 24 % of the patients were in this range. Conclusions: Candida albicans was the predominant species both in the oral mucosa and in the periodontal sulcus in postmenopausal patients. In both studied sites, buccal mucosa and periodontal sulcus, other opportunistic species such as C. parapsilosis, C. kruzei, C. tropicalis and C. glabrata were also found