Bacteriology of severe periodontitis in young adult humans

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.