| Summary: | Various bi-directional associations exist between oral health and gastro-intestinal diseases. The oral microbiome plays a role in the gastro-intestinal carcinogenesis and fusobacteria are the most investigated bacteria involved. This paper aims to review the current knowledge and report the preliminary data on salivary levels of <i>Fusobacterium nucleatum</i>, <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i> and <i>Candida albicans</i> in subjects with different gastro-intestinal conditions or pathologies, in order to determine any differences. The null hypothesis was “subjects with different gastro-intestinal diseases do not show significant differences in the composition of the oral microbiota”. Twenty-one subjects undergoing esophagastroduodenoscopy or colonscopy were recruited. For each subject, a salivary sample was collected before the endoscopy procedure, immediately stored at −20 °C and subsequently used for genomic bacterial DNA extraction by real-time PCR. Low levels of <i>F. nucleatum</i> and <i>P. gingivalis</i> were peculiar in the oral microbiota in subjects affected by <i>Helicobater pylori</i>-negative chronic gastritis without cancerization and future studies will elucidate this association. The level of <i>C. albicans</i> did not statistically differ among groups. This preliminary study could be used in the future, following further investigation, as a non-invasive method for the search of gastrointestinal diseases and associated markers.
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