Читать книгу Oral Biofilms - Группа авторов - Страница 8
ОглавлениеPublished online: December 21, 2020
Eick S (ed): Oral Biofilms. Monogr Oral Sci. Basel, Karger, 2021, vol 29, pp X–XI (DOI: 10.1159/000510204)
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Fifty-five years ago, a landmark article was published by a group of clinical researchers at the Royal Dental College of Aarhus, Denmark. With this clinical experiment entitled “Experimental Gingivitis in Man” a cause-and-effect relationship between “dental plaque” and the host response in the form of a gingivitis was established. Hence, Harald Löe and his coworkers had established the basic paradigm for the prevention as well as therapy of periodontal diseases. Some years later, van der Fehr and coworkers established a similar paradigm with their clinical study entitled “Experimental Caries in Man.” “Dental plaque” had become the major etiologic factor for the most frequently encountered oral diseases.
At that time, dental plaque was believed to represent a biomass of bacteria, and the quantity of bacteria was considered to reflect the degree of host response observed. Dental plaque was non-specifically inducing the disease process. In the 1980s, researchers were challenged to find specific pathogens for both caries and periodontal diseases, and it was realized that dental plaque could very well contain specific bacteria responsible for the initiation and promotion of oral diseases. This search for specific pathogens indeed identified groups of micro-organisms with high pathogenic potential and other groups associated with healthy conditions.
In the 1990s and up to the turn of the century, an opportunistic concept of dental plaque gained a lot of attention, and it was realized that the microbial environment substantially influenced the composition of dental plaque, thereby determining its pathogenicity. This paradigm shift in the understanding of the nature of dental plaque culminated in the research of William Costerton and coworkers from the Montana State University in Bozeman, USA, who – at the beginning of the 21st century – provided unequivocal evidence that the bacteria that cause device-related and other chronic infections grow in matrix-enclosed biofilms. The diagnostic and therapeutic strategies that have served in the partial eradication of acute epidemic bacterial diseases have not yielded accurate data or favorable outcomes when applied to these biofilm diseases. The potential benefits of the application of the methods and concepts developed by biofilm science and engineering to the clinical management of infectious diseases are obvious.
Hence, in recent years the term “dental plaque” has been replaced by “oral biofilms.” As biofilms form on all hard, non-shedding surfaces in a fluid system, it is of striking importance to realize that teeth, implants, and prosthetic devices are all affected by biofilm formation.
Biofilms are the most obvious and essential etiologic factors for all oral diseases with the exception of trauma and malignancies. It is, therefore, not surprising to find a chapter dealing with biofilms in each modern dental textbook. However, only few such chapters may deal comprehensively with the issue. The present volume on “biofilms” looks at this interesting structure from various angles. It sheds light on the life in a biofilm beyond the sheer enumeration of single bacterial species. The book is a multi-author production which assures a competent analysis on various cariologic, endodontologic, periodontal, and peri-implant aspects, as well as those of dental unit water lines. The presentation of the life in the biofilms provides a profound understanding of this very interesting and most important structure. The book is recommended for all dental students, graduate students, and biologically oriented dental clinicians.
Niklaus P. Lang
Bern, Switzerland
