Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Absolute quantification by mouthwash testing screens severe periodontitis and tracks species-specific microbial response to periodontal therapy
Background Non-invasive molecular tools that can both screen for severe periodontitis and quantify treatment-associated pathogen changes remain an unmet need. We evaluated a non-invasive multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) mouthwash panel providing absolute colony-forming-unit (CFU) quantification of five periodontal pathogens ( Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, Tannerella forsythia, Prevotella intermedia, Fusobacterium nucleatum ), and asked whether a single test can both screen fo …