Scientists find germs in your GUMS can reveal your ethnicity in the same way fingerprints can



Researchers at Ohio State University found 'no two mouths were the same'

Previously dentists thought everyone shared the same 'healthy bacteria'



Breakthrough could transform dental care and improve disease treatments

Breakthrough: Dentists previously thought one type of dental treatment worked for everyone. But this study by Ohio State University could disprove that

The germs in your mouth are as good as fingerprints for identifying your ethnicity, groundbreaking research has revealed.

Testing almost 400 different types of microbes, scientists at Ohio State University were able to work out which had come from a white, Chinese, Latino or non-Hispanic black person.

Experts have hailed it as a breakthrough for medicine, as doctors may be able to identify why some people are more susceptible to certain illnesses.

It also proves one type of dental care may not be appropriate for everybody.



Previously, dentists believed everyone had the same types of 'healthy bacteria' in their mouths.

But in a paper released this week, researchers found just two per cent of microbes are common between the four races.



Beyond that, each ethnicity was shown to have specific, hereditary bacteria.



With the discovery that some races have microbes which other races don't, doctors could now be able to build more specific treatments for oral diseases.

Senior author Purnima Kumar, an associate professor in the OSU dental college, said: 'We know that our food and oral hygiene habits determine what bacteria can survive and thrive in our mouths, which is why your dentist stresses brushing and flossing.'

'Can your genetic makeup play a similar role? The answer seems to be yes, it can.

'No two people were exactly alike. That's truly a fingerprint.'

Using a deep sequencing DNA method, Ms Kumar was able to get an in-depth and unprecedented view of the germs in their own setting.

Unique: No two mouths were the same in the study released this week, which could explain why certain races are susceptible to diseases that other races are not

She found the germs sat underneath the gum are the most specific as they were the least affected by food, tobacco and toothpaste.



The machine she and her team trained to differentiate between the microbes in the mouths of 100 people had a 62 per cent success rate when predicting the person's race.