Abstract

Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria that naturally live in the human body, especially in the oral cavity; these bacteria maintain the oral health by maintaining the oral cavity’s structures against the oral cavity’s harmful bacteria. This review aimed to investigate probiotics' effects and application in the dentistry field and probiotics' mechanism of action in the oral cavity. Several databases have been used to search for all previously published studies from 2000 till present that are related to our title and aim, such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Saudi Digital Library using the following keywords: “probiotic” and "systematic probiotics", or “probiotics in dentistry." One-hundred articles were collected, but only those items that provided data related to our title
and were published in English were included in the final evaluation. The study showed that probiotics could produce antimicrobials, compete for cell adhesion sites, modulate the immune system, and degrade toxins. In conclusion, the present study reviewed dental studies that focused on reducing caries incidence, improving the prognosis of periodontitis, and decreasing halitosis and candidiasis.

Key words: Atopic dermatitis, dental caries, halitosis, microorganisms, oral health diseases, periodontitis