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Colonisation of dentures by Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA in out-patient and in-patient populations

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Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important human pathogen, and colonisation with this organism can result in localised or systemic infections which may be fatal. One hundred in-patients admitted to a London teaching hospital and 100 out-patients attending prosthetic dentistry clinics were recruited into this study. Of the 100 out-patients, 27 % harboured S. aureus on their dentures, compared to 33 % of in-patients. Only one out-patient had MRSA colonising their dentures whereas 12 % of the in-patients harboured MRSA. The median total bacterial count of the denture plaque samples was 6.2 × 107 cfu/sample and 6.9 × 107 cfu/sample for the out-patient and in-patient populations, respectively. In most instances, where present, S. aureus comprised less than 1 % of the total viable denture microbiota. Phage typing demonstrated that EMRSA-15 and non-typeable strains were harboured on dentures. The results of this study have revealed that dentures are a potential reservoir of MRSA and so account should be taken of these findings when planning decontamination procedures for elimination of this pathogen.

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Acknowledgments

This work was undertaken at UCLH/UCL which received a proportion of funding from the Department of Health’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centres Funding Scheme, UK.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eastman Dental Hospital, UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, 256 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LD, UK

    N. Lewis, Z. Hussain, G. Baker & I. Green

  2. University College London, Eastman Dental Institute, 256 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LD, UK

    N. Parmar, I. Green, J. Howlett, A. McDonald, M. Wilson & D. Ready

  3. Laboratory of Healthcare Associated Infection, Public Health England, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW95EQ, UK

    A. Kearns & B. Cookson

  4. Public Health England, Public Health Laboratory London, 3rd Floor Pathology & Pharmacy Building, 80 Newark Street, London, E1 2ES, UK

    D. Ready

Authors
  1. N. Lewis
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  2. N. Parmar
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  3. Z. Hussain
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  4. G. Baker
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  5. I. Green
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  6. J. Howlett
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  7. A. Kearns
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  8. B. Cookson
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  9. A. McDonald
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  10. M. Wilson
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  11. D. Ready
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Ready.

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Lewis, N., Parmar, N., Hussain, Z. et al. Colonisation of dentures by Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA in out-patient and in-patient populations. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 1823–1826 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2418-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2418-6

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