Effect of antibacterial agents on the surface hardness of a conventional glass-ionomer cement

Abstract

In atraumatic restorative treatment (ART), caries removal with hand excavation instruments is not as efficient as that with rotary burs in eliminating bacteria under the glass ionomer cements (GICs). Thus, different antibacterial agents have been used in recent studies to enhance the antibacterial properties of the GICs, without jeopardizing their basic physical properties. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of antibacterial agents on the surface hardness of a conventional GIC (Fuji IX) using Vickers microhardness [Vickers hardness number (VHN)] test. Material and MethodsCetrimide (CT), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and chlorhexidine (CHX) were added to the powder and benzalkonium chloride (BC) was added to the liquid of Fuji IX in concentrations of 1% and 2%, and served as the experimental groups. A control group containing no additive was also prepared. After the completion of setting reaction, VHN measurements were recorded at 1, 7, 15, 30, 60, and 90 days after storage in 37ºC distilled water. A one-way ANOVA was performed followed by a Dunnett t test and Tamhane T2 tests and also repeated measurements ANOVA was used for multiple comparisons in 95% confidence interval. ResultsVHN results showed significant differences between the control and the experimental groups at all time periods (p<0.05 for all). Significant differences were observed between all study periods for individual groups (p<0.05). After 7 days, VHNs were decreased in all experimental groups while they continued to increase in the control group. BC and CHX groups demonstrated the least whereas CT and CPC groups exhibited most adverse effect on the hardness of set cements. ConclusionsDespite the decreased microhardness values in all experimental groups compared to the controls after 7 up to 90 days, incorporating certain antibacterial agents into Fuji IX GIC showed tolerable microhardness alterations within the limitations of this in vitro study.

Surface Hardness of Glass Ionomer Cements used in Atraumatic Restorative Treatment

“…Surface hardness tests may be applied to evaluate the degradation and durability of dental materials, to observe the effect of storage mediums on the surface, as indicative of resistance to wear and durability, and also to monitor the hardening process of cements [5]. From the results of the present study, the Gold Label 9 Group (Fuji IX) presented the best performance among the cements studied, with data similar to those found in the literature [8,11,[24][25][26]. As observed in Table 1, Gold Label 9 obtained the best hardness mean values and alteration in the powder/liquid ratio of Vitro Molar resulted in a significant increase in surface hardness both after one day and after one week.…”

“…As Vitro Molar´s performance is worse than Gold Label 9, probably because of the powder to liquid ratio, we decided to test Vitro Molar with 50% more powder than liquid in order to improve its properties [5]. Gold Label 9 was used as the control group in this study, as it was developed for the specific use in ART and because of its good performance [8,11,[24][25][26].…”

Antimicrobial properties of conventional restorative filling materials and advances in antimicrobial properties of composite resins and glass ionomer cements—A literature review

“…Other additives to composites and GICs found to be effective against cariogenic bacteria include cetylpyridium chloride, cetrimide [148,150,155,156], benzalkonium chloride [95,146], sodium fusidate [157], 2,2 -bipyridine [158], chitosan [159,160], triclosan [66,149,[161][162][163], propolis [164,165], anthocyanin [166], tetrapod-like zinc oxide whisker (T-ZnOw) [167] and epigallocatechin-2-gallate (EGCG) [11,168,169]. In contrast to most of the other additives, addition of T-ZnOw epigallocatechin-2-gallate resulted in improved mechanical properties [11,167].…”

Release of antimicrobial compounds from a zinc oxide-chelate cement

“…Several recent studies have reported the incorporation of antimicrobial compounds into tooth-colored dental restorative materials, namely composite resins (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) and glass-ionomer cements (6)(7)(8)(9). Release of sufficient antimicrobial compound kills or at least inhibits offending microorganisms, thus protecting adjacent hard tissues from attack.…”