Personalised dental care a possibility
A scientific study carried out in the US has found that the oral defences against bacteria are unique to each individual, which could help dentists to develop personalised oral health care in the future. These bacteria can cause the infections which are one of the contributing factors that lead to oral cavities, so if each person’s individual weaknesses can be identified, then fillings could maybe be a thing of the past.
The team at the University of California tested four healthy subjects over a period of 17 months, checking specific bacterial DNA elements in saliva samples taken from each.
David Pride, of the University of California and lead author of the report, says: ‘We knew that bacteria developed specific resistance to viruses. But before this study, we had no idea of the extent to which certain oral bacteria in humans have utilised these resistance mechanisms against viruses.’
David adds: ‘Each time we sampled our human subjects, approximately one-third of the immune repertoire in the bacterial community was new. Which suggests that the development of resistance to viruses is occurring at least on a daily basis, if not more frequently.’
The researchers found that they could track the immunity to various oral bacteria in each of their subjects, leading to the conclusion that in the future scientists would be able track the paths of these bacteria through the population and even develop a personalised oral healthcare programme which would target the exact bacteria present in each person’s mouth, cutting the risk of oral cavities.
‘Because these immune features can be used to track bacteria and their respective viruses in humans, it may open to door to more personalised oral health care, where lineages of microbes are traced as a part of routine health care for individuals,’ the study concludes.
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