Coexistence of Periodontal Pathogens and Helicobacter pylori in the Oral Cavity of a Healthy Cohort

Background:
The oral cavity has optimal conditions to act as a reservoir of microorganisms.

Aims and Objectives:
This research corresponds to a descriptive study, which aims to study the presence or absence of periodontopathogens and Helicobacter pylori in oral swab samples from healthy Chilean women between 18 and 26 years old.

Materials and Methods:
Fifty-four oral samples were recruited and then cultured on 5% blood agar plates for the semiquantitative macroscopic microbiological analysis. Of the 54, only 38 showed regular to abundant bacterial growth. Of these 38 samples, 21 were randomly selected and analyzed by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect periodontopathogens (Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, and Tannerella forsythia) and Helicobacter pylori.

Results:
71% of the samples studied were negative for this group of bacteria, while 29% were positive for at least one of the microorganisms studied. Of this group, six samples were positive for Helicobacter pylori, one for Treponema denticola, and three for Tannerella forsythia. These last two microorganisms were presented together with Helicobacter pylori.

Conclusion:
The buccal swab of the healthy cohort was a matrix that allowed bacterial molecular analysis; however, due to the small sample size, no correlations were found between them.