Figure 2.

The "ecological plaque hypothesis" and the prevention of dental caries. Caries is a result of changes in the environment due to acid production from the fermentation of dietary carbohydrates, which selects for acidogenic and acid-tolerating species such as mutans streptococci and lactobacilli. Disease could be prevented not only by targeting the putative pathogens directly, but also by interfering with the key environmental factors driving the deleterious ecological shifts in the composition of the plaque biofilms [32].