Bacterial profiles of saliva in relation to diet, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status

Background and objective : The bacterial profile of saliva is composed of bacteria from different oral surfaces. The objective of this study was to determine whether different diet intake, lifestyle, or socioeconomic status is associated with characteristic bacterial saliva profiles. Design : Stimulated saliva samples from 292 participants with low levels of dental caries and periodontitis, enrolled in the Danish Health Examination Survey (DANHES), were analyzed for the presence of approximately 300 bacterial species by means of the Human Oral Microbe Identification Microarray (HOMIM). Using presence and levels (mean HOMIM-value) of bacterial probes as endpoints, the influence of diet intake, lifestyle, and socioeconomic status on the bacterial saliva profile was analyzed by Mann–Whitney tests with Benjamini–Hochberg’s correction for multiple comparisons and principal component analysis. Results : Targets for 131 different probes were identified in 292 samples, with Streptococcus and Veillonella being the most predominant genera identified. Two bacterial taxa ( Streptococcus sobrinus and Eubacterium [11][G-3] brachy ) were more associated with smokers than non-smokers (adjusted p- value