Plaque and dental caries risk in mid-life

Dental caries is an endogenous microbial-community-based disease resulting from an ecological shift from dynamic stability to metabolic imbalance in a consortium of acidogenic and aciduric bacteria comprising the dental plaque biofilm. Participants were members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longitudinal investigation of health and behaviour in a cohort born in Dunedin, New Zealand. Oral biofilm samples (collected at age 32) from anterior labial supragingival, posterior lingual supragingival, posterior subgingival and the dorsum of the tongue habitats for 841 participants were analysed using checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridisation (CKB), focussing on 30 ecologically significant bacteria. Associations of CKB data with dental caries at ages 32 and 45 years were assessed using regression modelling, adjusting for potential confounders including sex, xerostomia and oral hygiene. The putative periodontitis pathobiont Tannerella forsythia (in the anterior supragingival biofilm) was associated with untreated caries at age 32. The percentage of total summed cell number counts (%TPC) for two putative periodontitis-associated species (T. forsythia and Micromonas micros) were associated with greater caries experience at age 32 and the development of new caries between age 32 and 45. Additionally, severe caries (3+ cavities) was associated with putative caries pathobionts (Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus plantarum), periodontitis-associated species and ...
Source: Caries Research - Category: Dentistry Source Type: research