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The oral cavity is home to a rich ecosystem of microorganisms that are found in both healthy and diseased states. In the area of dental restoration, highly specialized materials are used to fulfill specific functions so that the patient recovers their dental structures, masticatory and phonetic functions and even enjoys improved aesthetics.

These materials allow commensal microorganisms to adhere and grow on rough surfaces, forming biofilms that are resistant to the oral environment and hygienic conditions. Thus, over time, these bacteria can corrode the material, create structural and color changes, or even cause infections, such as gingivitis or prosthetic stomatitis. Therefore, the addition of self-hygienic properties to prevent microbial colonization is necessary to maintain the oral ecosystem.

In recently published research in Royal Society Open Science, researchers from the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory (LII) of ENES Leon, UNAM, designed a method to incorporate AgNPs onto the surface of composite resins used for provisional dental restorations to inhibit the bacterial growth of early colonizers in the oral cavity.

"Our method inhibits the formation of biofilm by allowing the silver to remain on the resin surface for a long duration with a sustained release of silver ions, without affecting the fibroblast cells evaluated in this study and provides antiseptic activity in provisional restorations like bisacrylic resin," says Verónica Campos-Ibarra, postdoctoral researcher at ENES Leon, UNAM and Professor at the School of Stomatology, UASLP in San Luis Potosí.

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