ReviewFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology2014
Historical and contemporary hypotheses on the development of oral diseases: are we there yet?
Review in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immunomodulation as a novel treatment strategy for periodontal disease: a systematic review.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Vitamin D as a candidate host susceptibility factor in sugar-driven oral dysbiosis.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Pooled it
- How short peptides interact with oral cells? A systematic review.BMC oral health · 2025Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of caries microbiome studies can improve upon disease prediction outcomes.APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluating the Impact of Little Cigar Use on the Oral Bacterial Microbiota of Cigarette Smokers.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Ecological network collapse and functional potential shifts in the canine oral microbiota associated with periodontal disease: a pilot study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Depolarization-Based Multimodal Optical Imaging of Carious Lesions.Journal of biophotonics · 2026Article
- A prospective cohort study exploring salivary microbial predictors of white spot lesions during fixed orthodontic treatment.Journal of oral microbiology · 2026Article
- Multicohort external validation ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Oral mucosal health in acromegaly: clinical insights and metabolic associations.BMC oral health · 2025Article
- Microbiota-based therapies in oral health and disorders.Folia microbiologica · 2025Review
- N-acyl homoserine lactone signaling modulates bacterial community associated with human dental plaque.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Oral microbiota and respiratory diseases: advances and perspectives.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- The Reevaluation of Subgingival Calculus: A Narrative Review.Dentistry journal · 2025Review
- Inter-kingdom interactions and environmental influences on the oral microbiome in severe early childhood caries.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- The Oral-Gut Microbiome-Brain Axis in Cognition.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Exploring the role of oral bacteria in oral cancer: a narrative review.Discover oncology · 2025Review
- The Oral Microbiome and Systemic Health: Bridging the Gap Between Dentistry and Medicine.Cureus · 2025Review
- Human Herpesviruses, Bacteria, and Fungi in Gingivitis and Periodontitis Pediatric Subjects: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Effect of Probiotic Supplements on the Oral Microbiota-A Narrative Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dental plaque is an oral biofilm that much like the rest of our microbiome has a role in health and disease. Specifically, it is the cause of very common oral diseases such as caries, gingivitis, and periodontitis. The ideas about oral disease development have evolved over time. In the nineteenth century, scientists could not identify bacteria related to disease due to the lack of technology. This led to the "Non-Specific Plaque Hypothesis" or the idea that the accumulation of dental plaque was responsible for oral disease without discriminating between the levels of virulence of bacteria. In the twentieth century this idea evolved with the techniques to analyze the changes from health to disease. The first common hypothesis was the "Specific Plaque Hypothesis" (1976) proposing that only a few species of the total microflora are actively involved in disease. Secondly, the "Non-Specific Plaque Hypothesis" was updated (1986) and the idea that the overall activity of the total microflora could lead to disease, was enriched by taking into account difference in virulence among bacteria. Then, a hypothesis was considered that combines key concepts of the earlier two hypotheses: the "Ecological Plaque Hypothesis" (1994), which proposes that disease is the result of an imbalance in the microflora by ecological stress resulting in an enrichment of certain disease-related micro-organisms. Finally, the recent "Keystone-Pathogen Hypothesis" (2012) proposes that certain low-abundance microbial pathogens can cause inflammatory disease by interfering with the host immune system and remodeling the microbiota. In this comprehensive review, we describe how these different hypotheses, and the ideas around them, arose and test their current applicability to the understanding of the development of oral disease. Finally, we conclude that an all-encompassing ecological hypothesis explaining the shifts from health to disease is still lacking.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.