Opportunistic Oral Infections

Parish P Sedghizadeh; Susan Mahabady; Carl M Allen

doi:10.1016/j.cden.2016.12.007

Opportunistic Oral Infections

Dent Clin North Am. 2017 Apr;61(2):389-400. doi: 10.1016/j.cden.2016.12.007.

Authors

Parish P Sedghizadeh¹, Susan Mahabady², Carl M Allen³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Periodontology, Diagnostic Sciences and Dental Hygiene, Center for Biofilms, Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 925 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. Electronic address: sedghiza@usc.edu.
² Division of Periodontology, Diagnostic Sciences and Dental Hygiene, Center for Biofilms, Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 925 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
³ Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Radiology, College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, 305 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.

Abstract

An opportunistic infection (OI) is a disease of microbial cause or pathogenesis generally thought to occur in hosts with weakened immunity. Oral OIs are associated with many risk factors and pathogens. Causative organisms for oral OIs have unique modes of transmission. The clinical presentation of oral OIs is heterogeneous and diagnosis can be challenging. Therefore, laboratory identification of causative pathogens is useful for definitive diagnosis and targeted therapeutics, and can be achieved by biological, serologic, histologic, and/or molecular methods. Clinical risk assessment and history with review of systems, and accurate diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up, are essential.

Keywords: HIV; Microbiology; Opportunistic infection; Oral; Pathogens.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Mouth Diseases / diagnosis
Mouth Diseases / microbiology*
Mouth Diseases / therapy
Opportunistic Infections* / diagnosis
Opportunistic Infections* / therapy

Grants and funding

T90 DE021982/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/United States