Periodontal microbial ecology

The authors have taken the liberty of presenting this manuscript in two parts.The first is a brief ÔprimerÕ on microbial ecology, because, although the importance of microbial ecology in periodontal diseases is widely recognized, most of us do not know precisely what is meant by the term.The second section is a rather extensive overview of current studies of oral microbial ecology based almost entirely on recent in vivo studies.