Approximately 20,000 people in Ireland have Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes chronic swelling in the digestive tract. Since 2001, there has been a four-fold increase in the incidence of childhood IBD, leaving Ireland among the highest rates in Europe.
Almost half of Crohn's disease patients, especially children, may also experience oral symptoms. These symptoms can be similar to changes in the gut, including swellings, tags and corrugated textures inside the cheeks and lips. Poor nutrition can also contribute to gum disease and mouth ulcers.
Changes to the gut microbiome may contribute to the development of the disease, and published research from this international group, which includes Israel, Canada, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden, has shown that changes in the oral microbiome also occur in children with IBD. As the mouth is readily accessible, the researchers have been investigating whether the oral microbiome could be used to diagnose IBD or monitor treatment outcomes.
In this study, the group examined the oral microbiome in an international cohort and investigated how Crohn's disease activity and the oral microbiome respond to nutritional therapy. At baseline, prior to starting nutritional therapy, specific oral microbiome changes were associated with disease severity.
Nutritional therapy was shown to resolve inflammation and disease activity and this success could be predicted from the response of the oral microbiome, which returned to a more normal, healthy profile with resolution of symptoms. This means that in future, microbiome analysis could be used to predict Crohn's disease severity and act as a marker of treatment success.
Access the paper by clicking here: Modified Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet and exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) resolve oral dysbiosis in pediatric Crohn's disease: a prospective cohort study.