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It is believed that every living organism flourishes well in particular types of ecosystems and for bacteria, our mouths are a heaven for them. The mouth bacteria are offered a conducive environment for them to exist in as whatever food we ingest, they also feed on it. Surrounding conditions also remain constant for example, the temperatures are always the same unless we get sick or have some type of illness, the levels of humidity in the mouth are also said to be constant hence the bacteria not needing to relocate and adopting regularly to different locations in the mouth due to changing surrounding conditions. With mouth bacteria present in our mouths, we are supposed to be prepared for two kinds of realities. One is that, bacteria come with them harmful experiences and at the same time you may have the harmless or even helpful bacteria. To start with the harmful side of bacteria, we only have the Streptococcus mutants as the only type in that category of mouth bacteria. These types of bacteria are believed to be the root cause of cavity in our teeth. The bacteria are known to do well with refined sugar that we frequently consume on a day to day basis. The species is said to also consume the refined sugar when we ingest it and as the bacteria undertakes its digestive process, it produces acid as a product after converting the refined sugar. Scientists believe that the mouth bacteria produce this acid in very large quantities that the saliva released by our glands from our bodies is not enough to counter-react with all of it. The excess acid is therefore said to react with our teeth and in the process being able to erode the teeth and subsequently causing presence of teeth cavity. The teeth cavities can be treated by dentists if caught early enough. The other types of mouth bacteria present in your mouth could be used for several beneficial purposes. One of these purposes is preventing newborn babies from getting the HIV virus from their mothers through breast milk. Although the possible treatment has not yet been tried on people and animals, research has it that, developing the treatment could actually have very few side effects because of the bugs being harmless. A team of researchers led by Mr. Lim Tao in Illinois Chicago, screened about 170 strains of the Lactobacillus bacteria from the mouths of people for their bugs ability of binding the sugar mannose. They found that chains of these sugars are present in about gp120 glycoprotein which is on the exterior of the HIV virus. As they had thought,the six mannose binders believed to be the best, effectively stack to the gp120 from the 7 different HIV-1 strains which are said to be the most spread type of the HIV-AIDS virus. The kind of flexibility seen here was significant for the research team as they explained that the treatment would not be particular on a type of strain. The research team says that the mouth bacteria would be able to capture the possible HIV virus and stop it from infecting any of the baby's cells. According to Mr. Tao's team, the best Lactobacillis strain helped to reduce the HIV level of infection by over 90%. Learning and knowing about the mouth bacteria is of great importance to all of us because we have to live with them whether we like it or not.Understanding better about what bacteria type causes what illness will help you a great deal should you happen to visit a doctor. Wangeci Kinyanjui is an expert on research and reporting on Health Matters for years.To get more information on mouth bacteria visit her site at MOUTH BACTERIA
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