COBRE Phase III Year 4 Pilot: Oral Biofilm Adhesion Strength on Implant Surfaces

Peri-implantitis poses a threat to an indispensable therapy in dentistry used to effectively replace missing teeth. Approximately 3 million individuals have dental implants, increasing by 500,000 a year. Generally, about 1/3 of patients with implants will develop peri-implant infections and associated inflammation with the potential loss of the implant. Biofilm accumulation adversely affects maintenance of implant osseointegration and plays a significant role in determining implant outcomes. As adhesion is the first step of biofilm formation, it is critical to assess the adhesion strength of biofilm formation across implant surface characteristics. The search for an optimal implant surface to decrease the bacterial adhesion and to improve the soft tissue adhesion is still ongoing. While most of the peri-implantitis research is focused on pathogenesis, etiology, and risk factors, the mechanisms of bacterial interaction with implant materials is still not well understood. In the proposed study, we seek to harness a novel laser-induced stress wave technique with three aims: 1) determine if biofilm pathogenicity correlates with strong biofilm adhesion 2) compare biofilm adhesion with baseline values of mammalian cell adhesion 3) validate laser-spallation technology by comparing to current adhesion assessment procedures. Once validated, this technology can be used to evaluate in situ natural biofilm accumulation on novel implant materials as well as restorative materials. Successful adaptation of the laser spallation technique will enable development of seminal data regarding parameters that govern strong biofilm implant adhesion necessary to develop an NIH R01 proposal and expands the basic science collaboration between engineers and oral biologists.