Genetic Influence on Oral Health

Carmine Martino

BIOL-2110-001

Dr. Guy Barbato

April 25th, 2026

    A recent study found that human genetics can influence the oral microbiome and may increase the risk of dental caries, like decay in some people. Scientists analyzed saliva-derived DNA from more than 12,500 individuals and measured the levels of 439 common microbial species found in the mouth.

    The findings showed a surprisingly large effect of human genetics on the abundance of microbes in the mouth. The team identified 11 regions of the human genome associated with differences in the levels of dozens of bacterial species. One gene called AMY1 was strongly linked to the composition of the oral microbiome and even denture use, suggesting that interactions between human genes and oral bacteria may play a role in dental health. The strongest relationship found was between a genetic variant that disrupts the FUT2 gene and the levels of 58 oral bacterial species. The article explains that these findings show a strong interaction between human DNA and the DNA of bacteria living in the mouth.

    I particularly enjoyed reading about this topic because I used to work as a dental assistant, and I would sometimes notice family member's of patients coming in with similar oral health problems even when they seemed to have good home care habits. Reading about how genetics can play a role in a patient's oral health made those experiences make more sense to me.

Article: 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-genes-microbes-mouths-dental-health.html

Second Source:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/dental-medicine/articles/10.3389/fdmed.2022.1060177/full

Past and Present Oral Microbiomes

 

In these articles scientists have extracted genetic information from 4,000 year old teeth in order to gather more information on how our diets have changed overtime. Researchers at Trinity College Dublin along with archaeologists from the Atlantic Technological University and University of Edinburgh, were able to recover the microbiome in the teeth from a 4,000 year old corpse. As we knew before, historically it was understood that overtime cavities became a more modern problem while back then the decaying of teeth was pretty common with the microbiomes they examined. However, this new study found an excessive amount of S. mutans which is the bacteria that is considered the main cause of cavities. This was interesting because the genome of the historic S. mutan is vastly different from the one found now. Continuing to compare modern and ancient teeth, they also found evidence to support the theory “disappearing microbiomes' ' which hypothesizes that modern microbiomes are less diverse. This poses an issue because it can be detrimental to human health. Overall, seeing the difference in microbiomes they were able to tell how our increase in sugar consumptions has altered our oral microbiome.

Sources:

Link 1: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240327124735.htm

Link 2: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/4-000-year-old-bronze-age-teeth-chart-the-changes-in-human-diet-over-time