Dental caries is the most common chronic infectious disease of the oral cavity. The bacterium Streptococcus mutans is the sole pathogen that causes this disease. However, substantial evidence suggests that prevention and treatment strategies developed from traditional "cariogenic pathogen theory" are inefficient in reducing the prevalence of dental caries. An increasing number of individuals adopt the ecological view of the microbiota in the pathogenesis of dental caries. Recent technological improvements have enabled the detection and analysis of oral microorganisms, and many studies have focused on this area. The core microbiota is defined as a cluster of microbes playing critical roles in the initial and development phases of dental caries and may provide future direction for microorganism-related etiological studies.
龋病是发病率最高的口腔慢性感染性疾病，以变异链球菌为代表的一系列细菌曾被认为是龋病的单一致病菌。然而，近几十年来，基于传统致病菌的防治手段未能有效降低龋病的发病率，人们逐渐认识到单一致病菌理论并不能全面反映疾病与微生物的关系。龋病病因学的微生物研究逐步从传统致病菌理论过渡至微生态失衡理论。目前，随着检测手段的不断发展，大量龋病微生物群落研究陆续开展，龋病“核心微生物组”的概念得以提出，即在龋病发生发展中起到关键作用的一组微生物，这将是未来龋病微生物因素研究的方向。.
Keywords: Streptococcus mutans; core microbiota; dental caries; etiology; oral microbiota.