Can anti-cavity oral probiotics spread directly between people via mouth-to-mouth contact?

Plus

Ṁ476

2026

25%

chance

ALL

Lumina is working to develop and distribute oral probiotics that outcompete typical mouth bacteria and do not excrete cavity-causing lactic acid: https://www.luminaprobiotic.com/

Some people are allegedly already undergoing this treatment: https://twitter.com/Aella_Girl/status/1726388994575929610?t=a1n14mUOcYVxA4PJzEENgg

My question is, is it possible for this GMO bacteria to spread directly between two people? The transmission could be intentional or accidental, but must be direct (doesn't count if it's cultured outside of the mouth before being applied)

I will resolve to YES if I get and confirm a credible and unambiguous report of this happening by the end of 2025, or NO if I do not.

Get

1,000

and

1.00

7 Comments

Sort by:

I think it would, but you probably won’t see it happening in the wild. It’s too small a population to reliably show up.

People might be interested in a podcast episode I recorded with the founder where we discuss this question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPyZt3EJCFM

Lumina Probiotics and Lantern Bioworks are run by the same people. I suggest you only reference Lumina Probiotic and not Lantern Bioworks.

@Kire_ ah, that was non-obvious from the websites. Edited.

@Aella you are presumably somewhat informed on this topic

@t3ss To my knowledge transmission is pretty unlikely. The original inventors self-applied and claim there's been no horizontal transmission over 20 years to their partners. It also isn't trivial to get to stick into your mouth at all; i had to apply an extremely high concentration and brush it in for a long time, after rubbing a bunch of dental polish to disrupt the biofilm. Normal saliva exchange would presumably not really disrupt the biofilm, nor be high enough concentration to latch onto the disrupted areas if it did.

4 traders bought Ṁ90 NO

Related questions

Related questions