New dental material could kill bacteria, resist plaque growth

Researchers have developed a new dental material tethered with an antimicrobial compound that can not only kill bacteria but also resist plaque growth.

Dentists rely on composite materials to perform restorative procedures, such as filling cavities. However, these materials, like tooth enamel, can be vulnerable to the growth of plaque, the sticky biofilm that leads to tooth decay.

Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US have evaluated a dental material containing an antimicrobial compound that can not only kill bacteria but also resist biofilm growth.

Unlike some drug-infused materials, the material is effective with minimal toxicity to the surrounding tissue, as it contains a low dose of the antimicrobial agent that kills only the bacteria that come in contact with it.

"Dental biomaterials such as these need to achieve two goals: first, they should kill pathogenic microbes effectively, and second, they need to withstand severe mechanical stress, as happens when we bite and chew," said Geelsu Hwang, assistant professor in Penn's School of Dental Medicine.

"Many products need large amounts of anti-microbial agents to maximise killing efficacy, which can weaken the mechanical properties and be toxic to tissues, but we showed that this material has outstanding mechanical properties and long-lasting antibiofilm activities without cytotoxicity," Hwang said.

The material comprises a resin embedded with the antibacterial agent imidazolium. Unlike some traditional biomaterials, which slowly release a drug, the new material is non-leachable, thereby only killing microbes that touch it.

"This can reduce the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance," Hwang said.

Researchers put the material through its paces, testing its ability to kill microbes, to prevent growth of biofilms and to withstand mechanical stress.

The results, published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, showed it to be effective in killing bacterial cells on contact, severely disrupting the ability of biofilms to grow on its surface.

Only negligible amounts of biofilm matrix, the glue that holds clusters of bacteria together, were able to accumulate on the experimental material, in contrast to a control composite material, which showed a steady accumulation of sticky biofilm matrix over time.

The team assessed how much shear force was required to remove the biofilm on the experimental material.

While the smallest force removed almost all the biofilm from the experimental material, even a force four times as strong was incapable of removing the biofilm from the control composite material.