drsingleton

I think the jury is still out on that. Metagenomic studies have only become possible in the past decade, and consequently there haven't been any long tern studies in humans. Studies in mice have show that the normal microbiota is rather static throughout the full life of the host. If this extends to humans, then the microbes are the "egg" in the equation.

Wow! A link on HN of a two year article gave my poor classroom blog a 5000 fold spike in page views. Apologies if the snow annoyed people, but it wasn't me but a checkbox on the free Wordpress backend. It doesn't even show on the mobile version. The science comments above are interesting, but my intended take home message was NOT to promote an alternative to the tried and true methods of proper dental care, but instead draw attention to the incredible complexity of the human oral microbiota.