Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Language
English
Publication Date
7-24-2026
Journal
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DOI
10.3390/ijms27156584
PMID
42589241
PMCID
PMC13465263
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
7-24-2026
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
Periodontitis, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting approximately 40% of U.S. adults aged 30 years and older, is characterized by dysbiosis of the dental plaque microbiome. However, although scaling and root planing (SRP) is the cornerstone of periodontal treatment, its effects on the taxonomic composition and functional potential of the dental plaque microbiome remain incompletely understood. In this study, we used whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing to characterize taxonomic composition and functional potential in dental plaque microbiomes collected from 39 patients with Stage II or III generalized periodontitis before and 3–4 months after SRP. Consistent with clinical improvement, periodontal therapy significantly reduced probing depth, clinical attachment level, bleeding on probing, and plaque index. Whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing identified 3.18 million non-redundant genes and 12,353 microbial species across 78 samples, revealing increased gene and species richness after treatment, along with a significant restructuring of the microbial community. Established periodontal pathogens, including Porphyromonas gingivalis, as well as the emerging pathogens Escherichia coli and Burkholderia multivorans, decreased following treatment. Tannerella forsythia also showed a marked reduction after treatment, although this decrease was not significant after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. In contrast, health-associated early colonizers, including multiple Actinomyces species and Streptococcus cristatus, increased. Functional annotation using the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZy) database identified significant treatment-associated differences in carbohydrate-active enzymes, including multiple glycosyltransferases, indicating remodeling of the predicted functional potential of the dental plaque microbiome. These findings demonstrate that successful SRP promotes coordinated taxonomic and predicted functional remodeling of the dental plaque microbiome and highlight the value of shotgun metagenomic sequencing for characterizing both taxonomic and functional recovery following periodontal therapy.
Keywords
Humans, Dental Plaque, Microbiota, Female, Male, Adult, Middle Aged, Periodontitis, Metagenome, Dental Scaling, Root Planing, Metagenomics, periodontitis, dental plaque microbiome, shotgun metagenomics sequencing, scaling and root planing, functional profiling
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
, "Effects of Non-Surgical Periodontal Therapy on Dental Plaque Microbiome" (2026). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 214.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthdb_docs/214