easts, especially Candida species, are part
of the normal flora of humans. For
example, Candida albicans is especially
common in the human oral cavity, gastro-intestinal
tract and female genital mucosa. C. albicans is the
most important yeast pathogen in humans and is the
species most frequently isolated from patients with
oral candidiasis. Studies show that denture, and
orthodontic appliance, wearers have more complex
yeast flora than other patient groups or healthy
controls [1, 2]. Long-term wearing of orthodontic
appliances, or prostheses, is a major risk factor for
colonisation by Candida of oral mucosal surfaces
[3] and result may in chronic oral candidiasis.
Sabouraud’s dextrose agar is widely used as a
selective medium for the isolation of Candida and
other yeast species from clinical specimens.
However, it is not a differential medium so that
colonies of different pathogenic yeast species grown
on the medium cannot be distinguished easily from
one another.
CHROMagar Candida is a new selective and an
effective culture medium. This medium is used for the isolation, direct identification and differentiation
of some of the clinically important Candida species
[4, 5]. Using CHROMagar Candida, speciation of
Candida can be performed on the grounds of colony
colour. A major advantage of CHROMagar Candida
is its ability to detect mixed cultures of yeasts in
clinical samples. In addition, CHROMagar Candida
is selective for yeasts and facilitates growth of
Candida [4]. The medium has not previously been
used for culture of orthodontic samples, although it
has been used for oral medicine specimens.
In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of
CHROMagar Candida for the isolation and the
identification of oral yeast species from orthodontic
and oral medicine patients.
MATERIALS AND