- In many cases, the same bacteria were present in both locations.

Some teeth with bleeding gums. / GettyImage/iStock

They find a relationship between bacteria in the mouth and brain abscesses

The proliferation of certain bacteria in the mouth has recently been associated with an increased risk of suffering from a series of serious health problems, such as dementia or cardiovascular diseases.

Now, new research has concluded that certain oral infections may be a contributing factor in the development of life-threatening brain abscesses.

The oral cavity, the source of infection

As the authors explain in the specialized Journal of Dentistry, this finding is the result of the analysis of the records of 87 patients admitted to the hospital with brain abscesses together with the culture of samples taken from those same abscesses and from other parts of the body.

This, they explain, made it possible to investigate the presence of bacteria from the oral cavity in the patient's brain abscesses, whether a cause had been found (in 35 of the cases) or not.

Using this method, they found that patients in whom no cause had been found (52) were three times more likely than others to have oral bacteria in their abscesses.

Oral bacteria and general health

More specifically, these patients had much higher counts of Streptococcus anginosus, a bacterium that can cause pharyngitis, bacteremia, and infections in internal organs such as the brain, lungs, and liver. Coincidentally, it is a bacterium that is often present in dental abscesses.

Based on this, the researchers suggest that the oral cavity can be considered a source of infection in cases of brain abscesses where no clear cause has been found.

As we pointed out, it has recently been discovered that oral bacteria could be involved in many cases of diseases such as stroke, colon cancer, Alzheimer's or dementia, heart attacks, or diabetes.

References

Holly Roy, Raul Bescos, Ewn McColl, Umar Rehman, Elizabeth Cray, Louise A. Belfield, King-David Nweze, Kevin Tsang, William Singleton, Peter Whitfield, Zoe Brookes. Oral microbes and the formation of cerebral abscesses: A single-center retrospective study. Journal of Dentistry (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2022.104366

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