Controlling the biofilm formation on oral implants

"Globally, between 100,000 and 300,000 dental implants are placed annually with high success rates and well described predictability. Although the success rate of dental implants is 92-98%, complications and failures with moderate to severe implications (e.g. bone loss) occur during the healing process. A major cause of this can be linked to bacterial infection, where some bacteria can affect 86% of implants within 3 months of osseointegration.

Bacterial biofilms on dental implants are generally highly resistant to antibiotics, disinfectants, phagocytosis and other components of the host immune and inflammatory defences. Using stronger antibiotics is to be considered with caution as antimicrobial resistance is now recognised as a critical global health threat.

Therefore, improved approaches to prevent dental implant associated infections are urgently needed. Infection-resistant biomaterials hold great promise for reducing healthcare-associated infection rates.

Currently, interest surrounds the use of naturally antibacterial biomaterials within a protective film (membrane) that is both biodegradable (removing the need for additional surgical procedures to remove the membrane) and biocompatible for bone regenerative surgery. This present field has yet to specify the parameters of the manufactured membrane within the scope of periodontal implants.

My PhD work focusses on the antibacterial properties of natural biomaterials within membranes against common forms of oral bacteria. It is the intention to manufacture degradable membranes that will be placed over the periodontal implant during the healing process. This will be achieved via layer-by-layer assembly of both antibacterial biomaterials and degradable polymers. The membrane will be conventionally assessed through bacteria cultivation.

The results of the assessment will then be fed into computer simulations that will model the biofilm growth upon the membrane. This will result in iterative feedback between the simulations and conventional experimentation to refine the manufacture of the membrane."