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Oral Microbiology Testing Service (OMTS) Laboratory
Thomas E. Rams, DDS, MHS, Director
The mission of the Oral Microbiology Testing Service (OMTS) Laboratory at the Temple University Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry is to provide excellence and innovation in diagnostic clinical periodontal and peri-implant microbiology for patients, clinicians, and the dental profession.
To meet these objectives, the OMTS Laboratory’s primary goals are to:
- provide commercial diagnostic periodontal and peri-implant microbiology analysis services on a fee-for-service basis to private practicing periodontists and general dentists in the United States and elsewhere, and to various dental school clinical programs intramural and extramural to Temple University.
- conduct and publish oral microbiology research on human periodontal diseases and infectious peri-implant complications.
- contribute to Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry educational programs and patient care services.
- serve as the primary service and academic base within the Kornberg School of Dentistry and Temple University for laboratory expertise on the core discipline of clinical periodontal and peri-implant microbiology.
OMTS Laboratory Licensure and Staff
The OMTS Laboratory is licensed and inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Health - Clinical Laboratory Permit No. 021872 - in meeting the same high-complexity level proficiency and quality control standards required of hospital medical microbiology laboratories, and is CLIA-registered at a federal level - CLIA Certificate No. 39D0707385 - with the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
The laboratory staff presently consists of Thomas E. Rams, DDS, MHS, licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health as the OMTS Laboratory Director (only periodontist in United States state-licensed as a Director of a clinical microbiology laboratory), and Jacqueline Sautter, a full-time OMTS Laboratory technician knowledgeable and experienced in clinical periodontal and peri-implant microbiology laboratory analysis, and operation of a diagnostic clinical microbiology laboratory.
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OMTS Laboratory Services:
The OMTS Laboratory quantitatively cultures major putative periodontal and peri-implant bacterial pathogens from submitted clinical dental plaque specimens.
Organisms routinely examined for by culture include the following:
Aggregatibacter (Actinobacillus) actinomycetemcomitans
Porphyromonas gingivalis
Tannerella forsythia
Prevotella intermedia group species
Fusobacterium nucleatum
Campylobacter rectus
Peptostreptococcus micros
Streptococcus constellatus
Streptococcus intermedius
Enterococcus faecalis
gram-negative enteric rods/psuedomonads
Staphylococcus aureus and other staphylococci
Candida species (yeasts)
In vitro antibiotic resistance screening is performed on isolated organisms using therapeutic non-susceptible breakpoint levels of amoxicillin (8 µg/ml), metronidazole (16 µg/ml), clindamycin (4 µg/ml), and doxycycline (4 µg/ml). For clinical specimens where elevated proportions of gram-negative enteric rods/pseudomonads are recovered, in vitro antibiotic resistance testing to ciprofloxacin is performed.
For selected clinical specimens by request, direct phase-contrast microscopic morphotypes are enumerated, and reported as the proportional detection of spirochetes, motile rods, non-motile rods, and cocci in the sample.
The resulting bacterial analysis provides the treating clinician with guidance in selection of the most appropriate anti-infective therapeutic regimens for patients, help in evaluating the efficacy of periodontal treatments in resolving pathogenic plaque infections, and aid in assessing risk of progressive or recurrent periodontitis disease-activity.
OMTS Laboratory microbiological analysis of subgingival dental plaque specimens is most indicated when a poor clinical treatment response is seen on periodontitis patients 1-3 months following conventional mechanical non-surgical and/or surgical periodontal therapy. Such microbiological culture testing may identify levels of persistent subgingival periodontal pathogens recalcitrant to local forms of periodontal therapy, and their in vitro antibiotic resistance patterns, to aid clinicians in selection of possible adjunctive systemic antimicrobial drug regimens.
Periodontitis patients with a history of recurrent destructive disease activity, and/or presenting with specific microbiological profiles (i.e., A. actinomycetemcomitans and other gingival tissue-colonizing pathogens), and/or scheduled for dental implant placement or regenerative forms of periodontal surgery, along with peri-dental implant lesions of suspected infectious etiology (peri-implantits), may also benefit from OMTS Laboratory microbiological testing.
Fees
$125 per patient plaque specimen (usually pooled from multiple affected sites) - must be paid with submission of the clinical specimen.
Please note: all clinical plaque specimens must be shipped to the OMTS Laboratory by overnight delivery service paid by the submitting clinician.
Inquiries, sampling/shipping instructions, and obtaining a free sampling kit:
Jacqueline Sautter
telephone: (800) 788-OMTS
fax: (215) 707-4223
OMTS Laboratory
Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry
3223 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19140