Changes in the microbiome during oral wound healing

Abstract

The microbiome is a numerically vast and taxonomically diverse microbial community that includes bacteria, fungi and viruses. The microbiome inhabits all exposed surfaces of the body and exist in a symbiosis with the host in health individuals. The microbiome can affect normal physiology of a number of host organs and systems, while a disturbance in the microbiota community structure, or failure of host responsive mechanisms to the microbiome have been implicated in a variety of disease etiologies. One of the least well-funded areas of microbiota research in relation to health and disease is the community of microbes that inhabits the oral cavity. Here, we outline the importance of the influence of the oral microbiome on healthy oral tissue homeostasis, the therapeutic options of treatment with live bacteria for diseased states within the oral cavity, and how the oral microbiome may influence healing of oral wounds resulting from oroantral and oronasal fistulas. In addition, we discuss the oral microbiome in relation to its influence on bodily organs distant from the alimentary canal, and on systemic health and disease.