Oral Biology

This text is a member of the critically acclaimed ’Methods in Molecular Biology’ series, published by Springer Science over the last 20 years, which have widely been regarded to have set the standard for publishing biomedical science protocols and methodologies. The publication focuses on the biological life sciences which underpin the practice of clinical dentistry, namely molecular biology and nanotechnology, demonstrating both the depth and breadth of ongoing research in this field. Such research is essential to the concept of evidence-based dentistry, providing justification for guidelines which establish ’best practise’ techniques, through to undergraduate and postgraduate education, discovery of new treatments and for further research and development into our understanding of the complex and diverse oral environment within which we operate daily.

With new technologies come new research techniques, exponentially increasing in range and complexity. This book provides an update on those practices and procedures currently being employed at the cutting edge of oral molecular biology. Divided into three sections, the text first considers recent developments in the study of saliva, the first line of defence to microbial pathogens and rich in biomolecules for study at a molecular level, which the authors suggest may lead to the identification of individual susceptibility to particular diseases.