Bacterial meningitis after tooth extraction

Dental Infection Causing Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia and Spinal Infection: A Case Report

Poor dentition as a source of infection causing bacteremia and spinal infections (such as paraspinal abscess, and discitis) should be considered even in the absence of recent dental surgery. The case presents a patient found to have an infection in the cervical and thoracic spine, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, and poor dentition. Although the patient had a history of drug use, he denied a history of intravenous drug use. He had Crohn's disease that resulted in periodontal and endodontal tooth disease. The patient was found to have poor dentition with erythematous gums. He had not been to the dentist in over 24 years and had active dental caries. Since he presented with bacteremia and a spinal infection, it is likely the patient had an infection in the oral cavity that spread hematogenously to the blood, and then the spine. This report highlights the importance of considering tooth infections as the source of bacteremia and spinal infections.

The necessity of administrating antibiotic prophylaxis to patients with diabetes mellitus prior to oral surgical procedures-a systematic review

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Μany studies suggest the use of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) as an appropriate preventive measure for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) due to the increased possibility of an impaired wound healing and infections after surgical procedures in the oral cavity. Existing recommendations regarding antibiotic prophylaxis before surgical procedures are not definitive and are based on expert opinions. The purpose of this study was to review the available scientific data about the necessity of administrating AP as a preventive measure prior to oral surgical procedures.

METHOD

PubMed®, Scopus® και Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were used as databases to search for published research. All articles were initially identified and classified based on the title and subsequently on their abstract. For the next level the full scientific paper was read and evaluated.

RESULTS

Overall, 22 articles were included in the study, of which 2 were systematic reviews, 2 cohort studies, 2 case-control studies, 1 case series, 8 case reports and 7 professional association publications.

CONCLUSIONS

In the scientific literature, there is a wide range of recommendations and inconsistency regarding the need to administer AP prior to surgical dental operations in patients with DM, while there is no scientific evidence demonstrating its' effectiveness as a precautionary measure. Both blood glucose level measurements and recent HbA1c measurement should be evaluated before any dental procedure. Poor regulation may result to life-threatening infections after tooth extraction. AP is recommended prior to the placement of dental implant. Randomized, controlled, clinical trials with large number of participants and greater variety of surgical dental procedures are needed.

Evidence and Therapeutic Perspectives in the Relationship between the Oral Microbiome and Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review

This review aims to clarify the nature of the link between Alzheimer’s disease and the oral microbiome on an epidemiological and pathophysiological level, as well as to highlight new therapeutic perspectives that contribute to the management of this disease. We performed a systematic review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews checklist, from January 2000 to July 2021. The terms “plaque,” “saliva,” and “mouth” were associated with the search term “oral diseases” and used in combination with the Boolean operator “AND”/“OR”. We included experimental or clinical studies and excluded conferences, abstracts, reviews, and editorials. A total of 27 articles were selected. Evidence for the impact of the oral microbiome on the pathophysiological and immunoinflammatory mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease is accumulating. The impact of the oral microbiome on the development of AD opens the door to complementary therapies such as phototherapy and/or the use of prebiotic compounds and probiotic strains for global or targeted modulation of the oral microbiome in order to have a favourable influence on the evolution of this pathology in the future.

Application of Metagenomic Analyses in Dentistry as a Novel Strategy Enabling Complex Insight into Microbial Diversity of the Oral Cavity

The composition of the oral microbiome in healthy individuals is complex and dynamic, and depends on many factors, such as anatomical location in the oral cavity, diet, oral hygiene habits or host immune responses. It is estimated at present that worldwide about 2 billion people suffer from diseases of the oral cavity, mainly periodontal disease and dental caries. Importantly, the oral microflora involved in local infections may spread and cause systemic, even life-threatening infections. In search for etiological agents of infections in dentistry, traditional approaches are not sufficient, as about 50% of oral bacteria are not cultivable. Instead, metagenomic analyses are particularly useful for studies of the complex oral microbiome - both in healthy individuals, and in patients with oral and dental diseases. In this paper we review the current and future applications of metagenomic studies in evaluation of both the composition of the oral microbiome as well as its potential pathogenic role in infections in dentistry.