Characterization of Antibiotic Resistance Profiles in the Oral Microbiota of the Pakistani Population

Background The oral microbiota's resistance to antibiotics presents a serious threat to world health, especially in developing nations where misuse of antibiotics is common. Objective The objective of this study was to characterize the antibiotic resistance profiles in the oral microbiota of Pakistani adults. Methodology The Department of Microbiology at Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College in Lahore, Pakistan, carried out a cross-sectional study from January 2022 to December 2022. Oral swabs were collected from 240 adults (aged 18 and older) who had not used antibiotics in the past three months. The disk diffusion method was used for both antibiotic susceptibility testing and bacterial cultures. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States) to examine associations within the demographic data. Results The study examined 240 participants, comprising 133 students (55.42%), 64 professionals (26.67%), and 43 individuals in other occupations (17.92%). Of the participants, 128 were male (53.33%) and 112 were female (46.67%). With 81 isolates (33.75%), was the most common species of bacterium, followed by with 69 isolates (28.75%). The majority of cases (n = 72; 30.00%) were resistant to penicillin, followed by erythromycin (22.50%) in 54 instances and tetracycline (19.58%) in 47 cases. Age group (50 years and above; β = 0.120, OR = 1.128, p = 0.017), penicillin resistance (β = 0.150, OR = 1.162, p = 0.001), erythromycin resistance (β = 0.120, OR = 1.128, p = 0.013), and ciprofloxacin resistance (β = 0.130, OR = 1.139, p = 0.014) were all significantly associated with the results of the regression analysis. Additionally, resistance was positively associated with the occupation "student" (β = 0.110, OR = 1.116, p = 0.047). Conclusion The high levels of antibiotic resistance observed, particularly in older age groups and certain occupations, underscore the urgent need for enhanced antibiotic stewardship and regulatory measures in Pakistan.