Bacteriology of severe periodontitis in young adult humans

Abstract

A total of 78 bacteriological samples were taken from the supragingival tooth surface after superficial cleaning with toothpicks or from the periodontal sulci of 42 affected sites in 21 adolescents or young adults with severe generalized periodontitis. Of 190 bacterial species, subspecies, or serotypes detected among 2,723 isolates, 11 species exceeded 1% of the subgingival flora and were most closely associated with the diseased sulci. Eleven others were also sufficiently frequent to be suspect agents of tissue destruction. Many of these species are known pathogens of other body sites. In addition, 10 species of Treponema were isolated. One of these and the "large treponeme" were also more closely associated with severe periodontitis than they were with healthy sites or gingivitis. There were highly significant differences between the composition of the flora of the affected sulci and the flora of (i) the adjacent supragingival tooth surface, (ii) the gingival crevice of periodontally healthy people, and (iii) sites with a gingival index score of 0 or 2 in experimental gingivitis studies. The floras of different individuals were also significantly different. There was no statistically detectable effect of sampling per se upon the composition of the flora of subsequent samples from the same sites. The composition of the supragingival flora of the patients with severe generalized periodontitis that had serum antibody to Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans was significantly different from the supragingival flora of patients without this serum antibody. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the composition of their subgingival floras.

Nutrient and environmental growth factors for eight small‐sized oral spirochetes

“…Sodium bicarbonate inhibited growth of all strains. Finally, none of the strains fermented a series of low molecular weight carbohydrates, but all strains produced HjS and indole.Normally spirochetes make up a substantial to some extent contradictory (1,3,4). Recent part of subgingival plaque at diseased sites observations indicate that the distribution of in individtjals with adult marginal periodon-different types of spirochetes in subgingival titis (1,2).…”

Cultivation on solid media of spirochetes in subgingival plaque from advanced marginal periodontitis in humans

“…These data are partly consistent with the study by LISTGARTEN & HELLDEN (1) in which an increase of smallsized and medium-si7,ed spirochetes was observed in diseased sites as compared with healthy sites. MOORE et al, (7) found that large treponemes" were closely associated with severe periodontitis. In this study spirochetes with endoflagella >8 were only among the predominating spiroehetes in two ofthe six samples.…”

“…In this study spirochetes with endoflagella >8 were only among the predominating spiroehetes in two ofthe six samples. The two studies (1,7) ere based on darkfield miercscopy, which is a rather crude method for evaluation of the fnieroflora in subgingival plaque. LISTGAR-TEN & HELLDEN (1) identified the spirochetes from cell diameter and cell length, while the present investigation mainly identified the spirochetes by numbers of endoflagella, which are only partly related to the cell diameter.…”

“…Ultrastructural studies al. (7) found large treponemes among the have revealed that spirochetes are loosely dominating spirochetes of severe periodonarranged on the surface of the plaque in close titis. contact with the epithelium in the apical It has not been determined whether the part of the gingival crevice (4)(5)(6).…”

Classification and typing methods of black-pigmented Gram-negative anaerobes

“…intermedia genotype II. It has been reported that strains of genotype I are predominantly found in deep periodontal lesions [15,16]. It is possible that more species amongst the group of animal strains can be distinguished, as has been suggested for strains from cats [17].…”