Oral Ecology - Discovery and History of Bacteria

Discovery and History of Bacteria

Bacteria were first detected under the microscopes of Antony van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century. Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist, performed many experiments testing and observing bacteria. He observed plaque on his own teeth— “a little white matter” as he called it. Under microscopes he saw “that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving,” which was the first sighting of oral bacteria as we know it. Leeuwenhoek tested the mouths of others, as well as his own. Two men that he tested had never cleaned their teeth in their lives and Leeuwenhoek found “an unbelievably great company of living animalcules…in such enormous numbers, that all the water…seemed to be alive.” Thus Leeuwenhoek discovered oral bacteria or “animalcules,” the name he gave bacteria in general. Later studies have shown that he actually saw mats of bacteria, what we know today as biofilms. Biofilms are communities of bacteria, or micro-organisms, attached to surfaces in the body. Oral biofilms are more commonly referred to as plaque. Biofilms form almost everywhere where there is bacteria. In the mouth, they naturally form on any stationary surface, namely teeth, gums, and the tongue. Leeuwenhoek made important findings of bacteria with his first observation and analysis of dental plaque, and since then much more has been discovered about the mouth and its ecology.