Bacterial Adhesion Inhibition and Biofilm Disruption by Adaptive Piezoelectric Biomaterial

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Dental resin composites have been widely used clinically due to their bonding potential to the tooth tissues, good mechanical properties, and lower cost compared to other indirect restorations. While successful, long-term survival of a restoration can be compromised by secondary caries at the tooth-composite margins. In most cases, failure is due to the microleakage of bacteria and their acid by-products through the margins between composite and tooth structures. Once biofilms are established on a surface, it is extremely difficult to remove or kill pathogenic bacteria therein. Therefore, inhibition of microbial adhesion or inactivation of the adhered bacteria could impair their development into biofilms. The goal of this application is to create a novel dental composite that inhibits biofilm accumulation as well as dislodging surface-adhered microbes on restorative materials using enhanced electric potential at the interface generated by oral motion without relying on microbial killing activity. A nanocomposite platform based on barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles enables antibiofilm and self-powering functionalities for biomedical applications. This nanocomposite surface inhibits bacterial colonization by utilizing its intrinsic physicochemical properties without bactericidal activity, thereby minimizing the induction of antimicrobial resistance and destruction of homeostasis microbiota. In addition, the piezoelectric property of BaTiO3 nanoparticles that converts normal oral motions into electrical energy can be utilized to enhance its antibiofilm activity. Ongoing studies indicate that antibiofilm activity can be further enhanced by modulating the work function by introducing a shallow metallic surface (< 100 Å) on the nanocomposite, exhibiting almost complete inhibition of bacterial colonization. Based on this exciting supporting data, we hypothesize that force- powering of piezoelectric crystals to produce enhanced electric potential combined with bacterial anti-adhesive property creates an anti-infectious environment that prevents the development of biofilms on restorations and secondary caries. We anticipate that the creation of this anti-infectious smart biomaterial would increase the functionality of restorations and provide a new strategy to prevent secondary caries as well as reduce the risk of restoration failure.