The goal of this study was to examine if the ablation of nociceptors using resiniferatoxin (RTX) modulates the oral microbiome collected from ligature tied around the maxillary second molar. RTX or vehicle was injected into trigeminal ganglia of C57bl/6 mice. After a week, a ligature was placed around the maxillary second molar. The ligatures were harvested after 3 hours (healthy control) or after 2 weeks (periodontitis). Bacteria were collected from the ligature and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed.