>oral microbes to the gut? Namely, P. gingivalis, H. parainfluenzae, and A. actinomycetemcomitans. Are we missing something? Well I know the physicians are missing it but as researchers, why is this often overlooke

Thanks for the question! There have been many papers describing the oral microbiome and its connection with the gut microbiome. As you mentioned, both of these microbiomes are part of the larger digestive donut and it is not surprising that bacteria are able to travel from the oral to gut microbiomes. Similar to the gut microbiome, the oral microbiome has also been shown to be disrupted in patients with Crohn’s disease (https://academic.oup.com/ecco-jcc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjac063/6577053) and Ulcerative Colitis (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.620254/full). Although it is still unclear whether these changes to the microbiome are causative or a result of the disease. With IBD primarily active in the lower GI tract, it is easy to see why a lot of research has focused on the gut microbiome and the bacterial activity in these regions. As we aim to better understand these diseases, it is important to consider the data in the context of the whole body and how the changes in the oral microbiome coincide with those changes we see in the gut microbiome. -RM