The link between the presence of Candida in the whole saliva and Decayed, Missing, and Filled Surfaces (DMFS) as noted in a study published in BMC Oral Health depicted its etiological role in dental cariogenesis or caries production in people. Suhail H Al-Amad et al. performed a cross-sectional study comprising of 160 patients to study the associations between Candida species assembled by oral rinse procedure, and DMFS, and periodontal health indices.

The links between Candida carriage and confounding variables were assessed with the help of Chi-square and Independent Samples t-test. About 49 (30.6%) patients had Candida colonies with Colony Forming Units (CFUs) varying from 103 to 105 colonies/mL. Higher age resulted in an increased count of Candida CFUs. Only DMFS was significantly related to higher values of Candida carriage, and this association was not related to age, gender, smoking, diabetes, and plaque index.