Comparison of endodontic bacterial community structures in root-canal-treated teeth with or without apical periodontitis

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Even when there was an absence of signs and symptoms, a large and diverse microbial community was recovered from the root canal system when carrying out revisionary endodontics.

Main

Zoletti GO, Carmo FL et al. J Med Microbiol 2010; 59: 1360–1364

This study used PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). This is a culture independent, rapid fingerprinting technique for different nucleotide sequences has been used in many fields of microbial ecology. Samples were taken from 23 teeth during revisionary endodontics. Twelve of these teeth had radiographic evidence of apical periodontitis. The investigators found that 'no significant pattern of bacterial community profile was associated with root-canal-treated teeth with or without apical periodontitis.' Nevertheless they reported that some of the bands (indicative of bacterial species) were more prevalent than others. In addition, the mean number of bands were higher (p = 0.04) in those patients with apical periodontitis.