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Updated: Jul 8, 2025
Oral Biofilm Sampling for Microbiome Analysis in Healthy Children
Published on: December 31, 2017
Interdental oral hygiene interventions elicit varying compositional microbiome changes in naturally occurring
Yong Ge1, Shatha Bamashmous2, Deborah Mancinelli-Lyle3
1Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Aim:
To evaluate the effect of different oral irrigators on the sub-gingival microbiome composition in patients with naturally occurring plaque-induced gingivitis.
Materials And Methods:
Sub-gingival plaque was collected from adults participating in a clinical trial assessing the efficacy of oral hygiene with two different oral irrigators (Waterpik Water Flosser [Group 1] and Oral-B Water Flosser [Group 2]) versus dental flossing (Group 3) for microbiome analysis. Plaque samples were reflective of naturally occurring plaque-induced gingivitis at baseline and of gingival health at the endpoint (4 weeks). Clinical measures of gingival inflammation were collected, and the sub-gingival microbiome was analysed by 16S rRNA sequencing to identify amplicon sequence variants.
Results:
Oral hygiene instruction with self-performed manual toothbrushing and water-jet irrigation led to significant reductions in inflammation for all groups; both oral irrigators outperformed flossing in bleeding-on-probing reduction (p < .001). Microbiome diversity of sub-gingival plaque remained relatively stable over time, but significant changes were noted in certain taxa, consistent with increases in the relative abundance of commensals and reductions in late colonizers and periodontal pathogens in the water-jet groups.
Conclusions:
Reduction in gingival inflammation at 4 weeks within the water-jet groups is accompanied by slight but critical changes in microbiome composition. Although biodiversity does not substantially change within 4 weeks during the resolution of naturally induced gingivitis, significant relative increases in commensal early colonizers such as Streptococcus, Veillonella and Fusobacterium were accompanied by a shift towards a less anaerobic microbiota associated with return to health. These changes were contingent upon the type of interdental hygiene, with Group 1 exhibiting more significant alterations in microbiome composition towards a periodontal-health-compatible community.
