Abstract
Peri-implantitis remains the major impediment to the long-term use of dental implants. With increasing concern over the growth in antibiotic resistance, there is considerable interest in the preparation of antimicrobial dental implant coatings that also induce osseointegration. One such potential coating material is fluorapatite (FA). The aim of this study was to relate the antibacterial effectiveness of FA coatings against pathogens implicated in peri-implantitis to the physicochemical properties of the coating. Ordered and disordered FA coatings were produced on the under and upper surfaces of stainless steel (SS) discs, respectively, using a hydrothermal method. Surface charge, surface roughness, wettability, and fluoride release were measured for each coating. Surface chemistry was assessed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and FA crystallinity using X-ray diffraction. Antibacterial activity against periodontopathogens was assessed in vitro using viable counts, confocal microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM showed that the hydrothermal method produced FA coatings that were predominately aligned perpendicular to the SS substrate or disordered FA coatings consisting of randomly aligned rodlike crystals. Both FA coatings significantly reduced the growth of all examined bacterial strains in comparison to the control. The FA coatings, especially the disordered ones, presented significantly lower charge, greater roughness, and higher area when compared to the control, enhancing bacteria–material interactions and therefore bacterial deactivation by fluoride ions. The ordered FA layer reduced not only bacterial viability but adhesion too. The ordered FA crystals produced as a potential novel implant coating showed significant antibacterial activity against bacteria implicated in peri-implantitis, which could be explained by a detailed understanding of their physicochemical properties.
Highlights
Tooth loss is a significant event that can have a detrimental impact on an individual’s well-being and social life
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the length of the FA crystals that were prepared using the hydrothermal method was 6 ± 2 μm
The energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) maps are composites of three images: (1) the secondary electron image generated by SEM and (2 and 3) elemental maps of colored pixels corresponding to different elements calcium represented by green pixels and fluoride represented by red pixels overlaid on the original SEM image
Summary
Tooth loss is a significant event that can have a detrimental impact on an individual’s well-being and social life. The causative factors include chronic bacterial infection known as peri-implantitis, which is defined as “an inflammatory reaction in the oral cavity with loss of supporting bone in the tissues surrounding an implant.”[5,6] Recent data have shown that peri-implantitis affects 20% of patients and 10% of implant sites,[7] making it a serious challenge in longterm implant dentistry. This condition that causes progressive bone loss could eventually lead to severe disfigurement and poor aesthetics, which is extremely challenging to manage and treat.[8]
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