Oral microbiome

Image by Tim Sandle
 

There have been many advances with the human microbiome since the pioneering work led by the US National Institutes of Health began in 2007. One such area is the microbiome of the oral cavity.

Some interesting observations are around the variations of this microbiome of the mouth and how it is influenced by smoking and vaping/e-cigarettes. Both of these habits significantly alter the microbiome composition. In turn, this influences health and disease. Moreover, from a contamination control perspective, the activities impact the normal levels of control we might expect with a facemask, in terms of the types of organisms we might detect from general poor mask wearing (like elevated levels of Staphylococcus aureus), to a weakening of the mask due to factors like increased saliva viscosity.

This week’s article looks at new insights into the microbiome of the human mouth and weighs up what this means for contamination control… https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-wide-oral-microbiome-implications-smoking-health-professor-tim-ecvxe/

 

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)