Im going to talk about things which live in our mouths.

Our mouths are home to around 700 species of bacteria, 30 species of fungi, and various protozoa and viruses. Before you panic, I should add that for the most part we live in complete harmony with our microbial lodgers! Well look in particular at the things which live on our teeth, and how they can affect us. For their predominantly bacterial inhabitants, our teeth make for an interesting place to live. Theyve several distinct surfaces, each offering living conditions which are optimal for different species of bacteria. These surfaces are non-shedding, which allows for accumulation of large masses of microorganisms and their products. This complex of microorganisms and their products, some of which they produce in order to help them stick to our teeth, is termed dental plaque. Its the pits and fissures of the tooth biting surfaces which are home to the largest microbial communities and thus plaque as these offer them good shelter from removal forces such as saliva and toothbrushes.

SLIDE 1 Plaque in fissures and pits of the biting surface of a molar Although the inhabitants of dental plaque are mostly harmless, and can help defend us from the unwanted attention of pathogenic microbes, sometimes we can suffer from plaque-mediated disease. A common well, it affects everyone! plaque-mediated disease is dental caries, aka tooth decay.

This is defined as the localized destruction of tooth tissue by bacterial fermentation of the carbohydrates we put into our mouths. As you can probably guess, high-sugar foods provide an excellent source of carbohydrates for the bacteria to use! The destruction of tooth tissues is specifically caused by demineralization triggered by acids released as by-products of fermentation. Fermentation is a method used by bacteria to extract energy they require from nutritional compounds. So, lets look briefly at how dental caries can progress.

The demineralization begins in the enamel, producing small cavities. As demineralization continues, these spread through the dentine and into the pulp. Dental caries is initially reversible, particularly with the use of fluoride. However, once the dentine has been penetrated, bacteria will invade and colonise the pulp throughout the root canal leading to inflammation as the immune system attacks them. At this stage, a root canal treatment, which removes the pulp and replaces it with an inert filling, would be required to save the tooth and thwart microorganisms from entering the bloodstream.

So to conclude, our mouths and teeth are usually happy places but occasionally things can go wrong perhaps well eat too much sugary food and give the species of bacteria associated with dental caries a chance to dominate their neighbours in the plaque colonies. Or perhaps well be under a lot of stress which will negatively impact our immune system. Anything which perturbs the delicate state of equilibrium in which we coexist with our microbial pals really can turn the mouth to an unhappy place indeed.