Oral H. pylori Infection

During the past 25 years, there has been disagreement regarding the existence of H. pylori in the oral infection. It was proposed that no living H. pylori exists in the oral cavity and that the positive results detected by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the oral cavity may be a fragment of H. pylori, instead of living bacteria, as part of a reflux from the stomach: H. pylori could not be cultivated from PCR-positive samples. The H. pylori comes from the stomach reflux only to survive in the oral cavity for a few hours because of the high oxygen concentration in the oral cavity. If the above proposed idea is correct, then the fragment or dead H. pylori should not have any negative effect on the drug eradication of H. pylori infections of the stomach [1-4].