Dental microbiota is associated with different types of organisms with dentition including humans and is responsible for many oral diseases all over the world. Bacteria in a dental biofilm are important also in other diseases, i.e., endocarditis, pulmonary fibrosis, and arthritis, and some findings predict the connection of dental microbiota with cancerogenesis. Not all oral bacterial representatives are pathogenic or potentially pathogenic. Dental biofilm consists of numerous different bacteria that may have beneficial characteristics for good condition of dental and oral health. Searching for bacteria or their products with the beneficial effect is important in the development of new biologically based strategies for the prevention or treatment of oral and dental diseases. For searching of potential probiotic candidates are useful methods that could map phenotypic or genotypic characteristics of studied bacteria. This chapter is focused on the spectrum of these basic methods searching for beneficial bacteria and their products.
Part of the book: Bacterial Biofilms