Dental Plaque - Microorganisms

Microorganisms

As previously mentioned there are about 1,000 out of the 25,000 species of bacteria that are involved with the formation of dental biofilm. Due to this fairly large number there is fierce competition among the bacteria present on dental biofilm for nutrients present in the mouth. Only about fifty percent of the 1,000 species have been cultured for study. Scientists at the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts have begun the Human Oral Microbiome Project to identify bacteria and study the complex ecosystems of the mouth. On their website, one can find information about the identified organisms as well as the method being utilized to identify the organisms.