Gingival and dental status, salivary acidogenic bacteria, and yeast counts of patients with active or inactive Crohn's disease.

To investigate dental, gingival, and salivary aspects during an exacerbation of Crohn's disease, 53 patients with long-standing Crohn's disease were clinically, endoscopically, and radiologically examined. The patients were divided in two groups: 32 patients had active disease and 21 patients had inactive disease. Oral examination of the patients did not reveal any statistically significant differences in gingival or dental indexes between the groups, but patients with active disease tended to have higher scores of gingivitis than patients with inactive disease despite the fact that the patients with active disease were younger than those in remission. No differences between the groups were observed in salivary flow rate or buffering capacity. Lactobacilli and yeast counts of saliva tended to be higher among patients with active disease than with inactive disease, but the difference between the groups was significant only for high mutans streptococci counts.