The study results highlight the importance of performing a detailed examination and appropriate analysis. In both studies, tooth retention was high (mean number of teeth recorded was 26.4 and 28.0 respectively), smoking unusual, and families large and localised to the village. This community thus affords several advantages over populations in developed countries when considering familial studies of adult periodontitis.

Within the limits of the study protocol, the results demonstrated superior therapeutic benefits for the stabilized 0.454% stannous fluoride/sodium hexametaphosphate dentifrice in reducing gingivitis compared to the triclosan/copolymer control in this partially supervised study.

Helicobacter pylori infection remains one of the most common in humans, but the route of transmission of the bacterium is still uncertain. This study was designed to elucidate possible sources of infection in an isolated, rural population in Guatemala. A total of 242 subjects in family units participated in the study. A medical history, including a history of dyspepsia, was taken by a physician and immunoglobulin G antibodies to H. pylori were detected with the QuickVue (Quidel, San Diego, Calif.) onsite serology test. Overall, 58% of subjects were seropositive, with a positive relationship between mother and child (P = 0.02) and a positive correlation between the serostatuses of siblings (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.63). There was no association between serostatus and gastric symptoms. Oral H. pylori was detected from periodontal pockets of various depths and the dorsum of the tongue by nested PCR. Eighty-seven percent of subjects had at least one oral site positive for H. pylori, with the majority of subjects having multiple positive sites. There was no association between periodontal pocket depth and the detection of H. pylori. Nested PCR was also used to detect H. pylorifrom beneath the nail of the index finger of each subject’s dominant hand. Overall, 58% of subjects had a positive fingernail result, with a significant positive relationship between fingernail and tongue positivity (P = 0.002). In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that oral carriage of H. pylori may play a role in the transmission of infection and that the hand may be instrumental in transmission.