Scardovia wiggsiae
This is not a Tolkien character or a new indie rock band. Its the new bacteria that’s been found in the mouths of children with severe early childhood caries, even when other known pathogens such as Streptococcus mutans were not present. Why is this significant? According to the researchers at the Forsyth Institute, this identification offers the potential to intervene and stop disease progression AND, because Streptococcus mutans–widely recognized as the primary pathogen in early childhood caries–is also present in people without disease and is not detected in all cases of childhood caries. So the discovery of S. wiggsiae adds another route for treatment and prevention.
As a point of reference, early childhood caries is known to be the most common chronic infectious disease of childhood in the United States. On top of that, early childhood caries disproportionately affects disadvantaged socio-economic groups. So any progress in prevention may have an enormous impact.The research will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, if you have access to it.
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