The relationship between the presence of Helicobacter pylori in the oral cavity and in the stomach

There are numerous studies suggesting that inflammation of the oral cavity caused by bacteria or fungi is accompanied by gastric inflammation. This is particularly relevant in patients using complete dentures. Since the presence of H. pylori in the oral cavity can be easily discovered by bacteria culture and that in the stomach by 13C urea breath test (UBT) and histology of gastric endoscopic biopsy samples it is reasonably to state that the majority of the patients show the presence of bacterium in oral cavity and active gastric H. pylori infection. When comparing, however, the bacteria culture originating from the oral mucosa to those from the gastric mucosa, employing molecular biology examination, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we found that the oral bacteria and those originating from stomach are completely different, suggesting that H. pylori may be present only transiently in oral cavity and does not play major role in gastric H. pylori infection. Thus, oral cavity does not serve as bacterial reservoir to infect gastric mucosa. Most important finding of our study is that patients with recognized inflammation in the oral cavity in the form of stomatitis prothetica hyperplasica both fibrosa as well as papillaris showed in nearly 100% gastric H. pylori infection, usually without the presence of the same bacterium in the oral cavity, suggesting that gastric H. pylori infection affects oral mucosa at distance by some, as yet, unknown mechanism