Despite obsessive brushing, flossing and mouthwashing, your mouth is (and will always be) filled with bacteria. Lots of them. These bugs play a role in determining if you'll get cavities, gum disease and maybe even oral cancer. Of course what you eat and how often you drag yourself to the dentist can impact who sets up camp in your chomper, but do your genes have a say, too? New research
says yes, and that the particular mix is specific to your ethnicity.
Researchers collected spit and plaque samples from 100 Americans who fell into four ethnic categories: non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites, Chinese and Latinos. Every one of the participants had two percent of their bacteria in common---what the researchers called a core community. Beyond that, though, each individual's microbiome was unique, like a fingerprint. Even more surprising was the fact that each ethnicity showed a unique mix of bacterial species ...
