The Collapse

May 20, 2026

·S. Thaddeus Connelly, DDS, MD, PhD, FACS

For decades, dentistry has described disease as invasion. Pathogens arrive. Tissue breaks down. Infection spreads. The enemy is identified, targeted, eliminated. It is a clean story. It is also biologically incomplete. The oral ecosystem does not collapse because bacteria suddenly appear. The mouth has never been sterile. Even the healthiest oral cavity contains billions of microorganisms organized into structured, metabolically active communities. Health is not the absence of microbes. Health is the successful management of ecology.

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The complete article — figures, references, and clinical commentary — is published in The Oral Health Bulletin on LinkedIn.

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