Acquiring and maintaining a normal oral microbiome: current perspective

The oral microbiota survives daily physical and chemical perturbations from the intake of food and personal hygiene measures, resulting in a long-term stable microbiome. Biological properties that confer stability in the microbiome are important for the prevention of dysbiosis—a microbial shift toward a disease, e.g., periodontitis or caries. Although processes that underlie oral diseases have been studied extensively, processes involved in maintaining of a normal, healthy microbiome are poorly understood. In this review we present our hypothesis on how a healthy oral microbiome is acquired and maintained. We introduce our view on the prenatal development of tolerance for the normal oral microbiome: we propose that development of fetal tolerance toward the microbiome of the mother during pregnancy is the major factor for a successful acquisition of a normal microbiome. We describe the processes that influence the establishment of such microbiome, followed by our perspective on the process of sustaining a healthy oral microbiome. We divide microbiome-maintenance factors into host-derived and microbe-derived, while focusing on the host. Finally, we highlight the need and directions for future research.