Im am fascinated by the sheer number of microbes we coexist with. I was shocked to learn that the body houses specific microbes in certain parts of the body to utilize their metabolic processes or their use as a natural defense to other pathogens. In particular the mouth microbiota is something that interests me as a future dentist. I think that the interaction we have with the outside world ( our environment) and usually the first portal of entry being our mouth we don’t have more problems with dysbiosis and disease. Many people do have some sort of oral disease at any given point including cavities or gingivitis. Its amazing to me that this dysbiosis in the mouth doesn’t create more problems systemically. The more we study the relationship we have with microbes the better we can understand the mechanisms and use them to our advantage to maintain a healthy diversity of microbiota.
dysbiosis in the mouth
Dysbiosis in the mouth of a normal microbial diversity can have effects on a very macroscopic level. I don’t think many people outside of the scientific world understand the complexity of the interactions, including myself and I would like to research and write more about it. The topic of probiotics is sweeping the world and most people think of just ingesting probiotics to help with a healthy gut. There is also talk of mouth rinses that have probiotics to maintain a healthy diversity of microbes in the mouth. Again this is one of the major entries into our body and if we don’t have good bacteria in our mouth protecting us from the bad we could experience disease that we would otherwise avoid.
I think the topic of oral microbiota would be very interesting for me to write about and I think I could take a lot away from it. The mouth is a perfect environment for many microorganisms to flourish in, good and bad. So how do we keep high levels of beneficial microbes where they need to be. I think this focus is broad enough to use a lot of the information I have learned from this class and microbiology to write worth while paper. At the same time I think the focus on the mouth would intrigue me more then looking at the microbial community on the skin.
