Further Investigations on Bacteriological Infections of the Mouth

Chewing fails to induce oral bacteraemia in patients with periodontal disease

“…The number of positive skin contaminants obtained in our study is similar to those obtained in two recent studies (Tomas et al 2004, 10%, Kinane et al 2005, 7%) using the same Bactec 9240 continuous monitoring system to assess oral bacteraemia. Our results are in accordance with two previous studies that failed to show any bacteraemia due to chewing (Robinson et al 1950, Degling 1972 but are in disagreement with the five studies that did report bacteraemia (Round et al 1936, Murray & Moosnick 1941, Cobe 1954, Diener et al 1964, Forner et al 2006.…”

“…Of these seven studies, two reported no bacteraemia on chewing (Robinson et al 1950, Degling 1972), while the other five studies reported incidences of 7–55% (Forner et al 2006, 7%; Cobe 1954, 17%; Round et al 1936, 20%; Diener et al 1964, 22%; Murray & Moosnick 1941, 55%). Analysis of the methodology of these studies showed that in only one study was a specific periodontal diagnosis given (Forner et al 2006), while the remaining six studies failed to provide any clinical data.…”

“…Several recent reviews on infective endocarditis and dental implications (Gendron et al 2000, Seymour et al 2000, Pallasch 2003, Slots 2003, Singh et al 2005 have stated that chewing causes bacteraemia, and yet base this only on review articles (Everett & Hirschmann 1977, Guntheroth 1984. In fact, evidence that chewing can cause bacteraemia is based on seven studies, the majority of which were carried out in the 1930s-1960s (Round et al 1936, Murray & Moosnick 1941, Robinson et al 1950, Cobe 1954, Diener et al 1964, Degling 1972, Forner et al 2006.…”

“…A major deficiency in five of the seven chewing-bacteraemia studies (Round et al 1936, Murray & Moosnick 1941, Robinson et al 1950, Cobe 1954, Degling 1972) was that baseline blood samples were not obtained from all patients to ensure that any bacteraemia found following chewing was actually caused by the chewing and not a preexisting bacteraemia. The requirement to obtain a pre-procedure, baseline bacteraemia is now recognized as a strict requirement for any study investigating bacteraemia induced by dental manipulations (Ramsdale et al 2004b).…”

Post-Mortem Bacteriologic Studies of Different Areas of Human Teeth and Their Supporting Structures

“…Transient bacteremias have also been demonstrated following the extraction of teeth under inhalation (16) or local (17) anesthesia. Irritation of a foci of infection is also known to produce a transient bacteremia (18,19). Experimental bacteremias have been produced in dogs by the removal of infected teeth (20).…”