{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T03:34:05Z","timestamp":1772508845485,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]],"date-time":"2021-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1613088000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>To evaluate the effect of medical cannabis consumption on oral flora and saliva.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Design<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A clinical prospective study, at the rheumatology clinic of the Nazareth Hospital in Nazareth, recruiting consecutively patients approved for medical cannabis, evaluating their saliva flow, pH and microbial load of <jats:italic>Streptococcus mutans<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>, prior to and under medical cannabis treatment.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Patients recently licensed for medical cannabis treatment, were recruited just prior to starting medical cannabis consumption (week 0), 1 and 4 weeks later, patients provided 5-minute time saliva samples, which were measured for their volume and pH, and cultured on a special microbial kit, evaluating the growth of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Out of 16 patients enrolled, 14 were female and had fibromyalgia. The mean age of the patients was 52.8\u00b112.9 years. The mean saliva flow at week 0, week 1 and week 4 were 5.38\u00b13.36 ml\/5-minutes, 6 (p = 0.769) and 5.45 (p = 0.391), respectively, and for saliva pH were 6.28, 5.94 (p = 0.51) and 5.5 (p = 0.07) respectively also. The mean Streptococcus mutans growth score at weeks 0, 1 and 4 was1.8\u00b10.75, 1.6\u00b10.83 (p = 0.234), and 2.4\u00b10.84 (p = 0.058), respectively. The mean Lactobacilli growth score at weeks 0, 1 and 4 was 2.59\u00b10.88, 3.1\u00b10.69 (p = 0.033) and 3.3\u00b10.67 (p = 0.025), respectively.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec005\">\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The results of this study show that medical cannabis consumption has no significant effect on saliva volume or pH, but it may be associated with changes in salivary levels of oral microbes such as Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0247044","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]],"date-time":"2021-02-12T21:41:24Z","timestamp":1613166084000},"page":"e0247044","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["The impact of medical cannabis consumption on the oral flora and saliva"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8134-8575","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"George","family":"Habib","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Doron","family":"Steinberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Adel","family":"Jabbour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,12]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0247044.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1186\/s10194-018-0862-2","article-title":"Patterns of medicinal cannabis use, strain analysis, and substitution effect among patients with migraine, headache, arthritis, and chronic pain in a medicinal cannabis cohort","volume":"19","author":"EP Baron","year":"2018","journal-title":"J Headache Pain"},{"key":"pone.0247044.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1097\/RHU.0000000000000702","article-title":"Medical cannabis for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia.","volume":"24","author":"G Habib","year":"2018","journal-title":"J Clin Rheumatol"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0247044.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101423","DOI":"10.1016\/j.berh.2019.06.005","article-title":"The prevalence and impact of comorbid fibromyalgia in inflammatory arthritis.","volume":"33","author":"SS Zhao","year":"2019","journal-title":"Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0247044.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1089\/can.2018.0027","article-title":"A Cost-Effectiveness Model for Adjunctive Smoked Cannabis in the Treatment of Chronic Neuropathic Pain.","volume":"4","author":"GA Tyree","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cannabis Cannabinoid Res"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0247044.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"268","DOI":"10.1097\/WNF.0000000000000246","article-title":"Medical cannabis in Parkinson Disease: Real-Life Patients\u2019 Experience.","volume":"40","author":"Y Balash","year":"2017","journal-title":"Clin Neuropharmacol"},{"key":"pone.0247044.ref006","first-page":"1","article-title":"What Do You Know About Maryjane? 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