Protocols to study the physiology of oral biofilms

The oral cavity harbors several hundred different bacterial species that colonize both hard (teeth) and soft tissues, forming complex populations known as microbial biofilms. It is widely accepted that the phenotypic characteristics of bacteria grown in biofilms are substantially different from those grown in suspensions. Because biofilms are the natural habitat for the great majority of oral bacteria, including those contributing to oral diseases, a better understanding of the physiology of adherent populations is clearly needed to control oral microbes in health and disease. In this chapter, we use oral streptococci as examples for studying the physiology of oral biofilms.