Analytical Methods to Assess Biofilms on Titanium Surfaces

Objectives: Objectives: Titanium dental implants are successfully used to rehabilitate patients in the dental clinic. In the clinical setting, accumulation of dental plaque on titanium implants is associated with peri-implantitis. This laboratory investigation sought to develop methods that evaluate biofilm viability on titanium disks using three different approaches (a) plate counts for microbial viability (b) assessment of adenosine tri-phosphate [ATP] and (c) PrestoBlue® dye to examine microbial redox potential and evaluated the effects of mouthrinses formulated with fluoride, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) or chlorhexidine (CHX) as a model system.
Methods: Methods: Titanium disks were incubated with salivary samples from adult human volunteers to allow the formation of microbial biofilms. Biofilm laden disks were treated with mouthrinses in triplicate and the effects of each treatment determined by three different methods for microbial evaluations i.e. plate counts, ATP assessment and PrestoBlue®. Untreated controls were included in all assessments.
Results: Results: Untreated titanium disks accumulated large densities of bacteria determined by all three methods used for microbial evaluations. Methods used for microbial evaluations demonstrated liner correlations between each other (R > 0.95). In comparison to untreated controls, titanium disks treated with each mouthrinse exhibited statistically significant reductions in microbial viability by ANOVA (p<0.001). Mouthrinses formulated with CPC or CHX demonstrated statistically significantly (p<0.05) greater biofilm inhibition on titanium in comparison to the fluoride mouthrinse.
Conclusions: Conclusions: This investigation demonstrates the utility of rapid methods for microbiological assessments of biofilms. Each method demonstrated linear correlations with each other. Additionally, results demonstrate the utility of these methods to examine the efficacy of mouthrinses. In comparison to a fluoride mouthrinse, the present results indicate that mouthrinses formulated with CPC or CHX were effective in decreasing biofilm viability on titanium surfaces.