Impact of gutkha chewing & smoking on microbial environment of oral cavity: a case study on slum dwellers of selected areas in Visakhapatnam.

Oral diseases are still a neglected epidemic. During the recent years, in India, both in urban and rual, consumption of tobacco in the form of direct chewing of gutkha is alarmingly increasing especially in the young adults as which is major reason for subsistence of oral cancer. In the present investigation an attempt was made to find out the relationship between gutkha chewing including smoking and oral micro flora in some slum dwellers of Visakhapatnam.