Periodontal pathogen levels in adolescents before, during, and after fixed orthodontic appliance therapy.

Introduction: This purpose of this study was to document and investigate changes in periodontal pathogen levels before, during, and after orthodontic treatment in adolescents.

Methods: DNA gene probe analysis was used to quantify the levels of 8 periodontal pathogens before, during, and after treatment with fixed orthodontic appliances in 190 concurrently treated adolescent orthodontic patients. The 8 pathogens examined were Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (AA), Porphyromonas gingivalis (PG), Prevotella intermedia (PI), Tannerella forsythia (TF), Eikenella corrodens (EC), Fusobacterium nucleatum (FN), Treponema denticola (TD), and Campylobacter rectus (CR).