ABSTRACT
Gingivitis is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases of humans, affecting most of the population at some point during their lives [1]. It is easily preventable by the removal of the plaque biofilm but often results in high treatment costs due to poor oral hygiene among the general population. Gingivitis has long been implicated as a potential precursor to periodontitis [2, 3] and is caused by the buildup of the plaque biofilm at the gingival margin. This in turn results in a shift in the resident microbiota as a consequence of environmental changes [4, 5]. The prevalence of Actinomyces spp., Lactobacillus spp., Prevotella spp., and Fusobacterium nucleatum is known to increase during gingivitis at the expense of
Streptococcus spp. [6-9]. This community shift causes inflammation of the gingiva as part of the immune response [3, 10, 11]. The disease can be prevented and alleviated by the removal of the plaque biofilm and by the use of oral hygiene products such as toothbrushes, toothpastes, and mouthwashes [12]. The constant depth film fermenter (CDFF) has been used previously to model the bacterial community shifts observed during gingivitis and has also been employed to assess the effects of oral hygiene products [13, 14].
