Understanding the microbial components of periodontal diseases and periodontal treatment-induced microbiological shifts
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Ioannis Fragkioudakis; Marcello P. Riggio; Danae Anastasia Apatzidou
- Source
- Journal of Medical Microbiology. 70
- Subject
- 0301 basic medicine
Microbiology (medical)
Gingival and periodontal pocket
Gingiva
Disease
Biology
Microbiology
03 medical and health sciences
Gingivitis
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Animals
Humans
Microbiome
Periodontal Diseases
Periodontitis
Bacteria
Microbiota
Biofilm
030206 dentistry
General Medicine
medicine.disease
030104 developmental biology
Immunology
Dysbiosis
Oral Microbiome
medicine.symptom
- Language
- ISSN
- 1473-5644
0022-2615
In the mid-1960s the microbial aetiology of periodontal diseases was introduced based on classical experimental gingivitis studies . Since then, numerous studies have addressed the fundamental role that oral microbiota plays in the initiation and progression of periodontal diseases. Recent advances in laboratory identification techniques have contributed to a better understanding of the complexity of the oral microbiome in both health and disease. Modern culture-independent methods such as human oral microbial identification microarray and next-generation sequencing have been used to identify a wide variety of microbial taxa residing in the gingival sulcus and the periodontal pocket. The first theory of the ‘non-specific plaque’ hypothesis gave rise to the ‘ecological plaque’ hypothesis and more recently to the ‘polymicrobial synergy and dysbiosis hypothesis’. Periodontitis is now considered to be a multimicrobial inflammatory disease in which the various bacterial species within the dental biofilm are in a dysbiotic state and this imbalance favours the establishment of chronic inflammatory conditions and ultimately the destruction of tooth-supporting tissues. Apart from the known putative periodontal pathogens, the whole biofilm community is now considered to play a role in the establishment of inflammation and the initiation and progression of periodontitis in a susceptible host. Treatment is unlikely to eliminate putative pathogens but, when it is thoroughly performed it has the potential to establish a healthy ecosystem by altering the microbial community in numbers and composition and also contribute to the maturation of the host immune response.