Introduction:

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive coccus that causes different types of infections. It spreads not only in the community but also in hospital centers. Dental professionals are in continuous contact with this bacterium for long periods of time during clinical care, which increases the risk of infection.

Objective:

To evaluate antibiotic resistance of Staphylococcus aureus in students of a dental school.

Materials and methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in ninth and tenth semester students of a dental clinic in Medellin, Colombia (n = 62) that met the inclusion criteria: carrying out clinical practice and not receiving antibiotic treatment during the last three months; they also met the following exclusion criteria: not having fever, cough, shortness of breath or skin rashes as well as not having undergone surgical procedures or been hospitalized during the last six months.

Sociodemographic data were collected. The presence of S. aureus was detected by taking samples from the nostrils. The identity of bacteria was verified by gram staining, catalase and coagulase tests and growth on mannitol salt. Positive samples were screened using the following antibiotics: cefoxitin, oxacillin, vancomycin, erythromycin, and ciprofloxacin.

Results:

Of the total of samples analyzed, 67.7 % were positive for S. aureus and of these, 28.5 % were resistant to cefoxitin, 35.7% to oxacillin and 7.14 % to ciprofloxacin.

Conclusions:

Staphylococcus aureus was present in 60 % of the study population, showing great resistance and being associated with respiratory symptoms. In this study, S. aureus was found to be more resistant to cefoxitin and oxacillin than to ciprofloxacin.

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