STUDY OBJECTIVES AND METHODS

The purpose of this study was to compare the bacterial adhesion of S. mutans and Enterococcus faecalis on sand-blasted acid-etched and anodized titanium dental implants. Three commercially available implants, namely SLA (n = 3), SLActive (n = 3), and TiUnite (n = 3), were inoculated with the prepared broth suspension of S. mutans and E. faecalis, and were incubated at 37°C for 48 h. After incubation, the colonies were counted using direct microscopy and the results were recorded as colony forming units/mL (CFU/mL). Mean CFUs were compared between the three implants by ANOVA and pairwise comparison by Tukey's HSD post hoc test using SPSS Software. p value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

RESULTS

• TiUnite implant showed the highest bacterial adherence for S. mutans (3.49 ± 0.53 × 102 CFU/mL) and E. faecalis (35.14 ± 1.54 × 102 CFU/mL) followed by SLA and SLActive.

• These data demonstrated statistically significant differences between the three types of implants (P < 0.05). Pairwise comparison showed that there was a statistically significant difference between SLA and TiUnite (P = 0.004) and SLActive and TiUnite (P = 0.001) in terms of S. mutans colony count.

• In terms of E. faecalis colony count, there was a statistically significant difference between SLA and SLActive (P = 0.000), SLA and TiUnite (P = 0.000) and SLActive and TiUnite (P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with sand-blasted and acid-etched dental implants, anodized dental implants showed higher adhesion of S. mutans and E. faecalis.

Adapted from V Nizampuram et al., J Long Term Eff Med Implants. 2025;35(1):45-49, for more info about this publication click HERE

This review is part of the Straumann "Scientific Highlights Newsletter 1/25"

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