Bacteria in oral health – probiotics and prebiotics a review.

Abstract

As health professionals we prescribe wide range of chemotherapeutics to the patients to control or to prevent the disease. When there is excessive use of antibiotics, which leads to imbalance between the beneficial and harmful microorganisms, making our body more susceptible to infections. Probiotics are living micro-organisms added to food which beneficially affect the host by improving its intestinal microbial balance. And Prebiotics are the non-digestible dietary supplements, which modify the balance of the intestinal microflora by stimulating the growth and activity of beneficial organisms. Combination of probiotics and prebiotics beneficially affect the host by improving the survival and implantation of live microbial dietary supplements into the gastrointestinal flora and by improving the microbial balance of the gastrointestinal tract, thus effectiveness of combining probiotics and prebiotics may have additive and synergistic effect. This review highlights the effectiveness of probiotics in combination with prebiotics for improving the oral health and in turn how they help us to lead a healthy life.