Dental News - Cavitating jets may provide easier removal of oral biofilm

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 23. January 2018

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SENDAI, Japan: Just like natural teeth, dental implants require proper care and oral hygiene to prevent disease. In a recent study, Japanese researchers looking for better ways for dentists to remove plaque from implant fixtures compared the effects of a cavitating jet with the standardly used water jet. They found that the cavitating jet removed biofilm from the rough surface of an implant fixture more effectively.

Prof. Hitoshi Soyama from Tohoku University and his team from Showa University compared the cleaning ability of a cavitating jet to that of a water jet. With the former, high-speed fluid is injected by a nozzle through water to create minuscule bubbles of vapour. When these bubbles collapse, they produce strong shock waves with sufficient force to remove surface contaminants.

To test the two different jets, four volunteers performed no oral care for three days to allow biofilm to develop in their mouths. Their fixtures were then cleaned using both methods, and the researchers measured the amount of plaque remaining at several time intervals.

While there was little difference between the amounts of plaque removed by both methods after 1 minute of cleaning, that changed after longer exposure. After 3 minutes, the cavitating jet had removed about a third more plaque than the water jet had, leaving little plaque on the implant at the end of the experiment. The cavitating jet left less residual plaque on the apex of the fixture than on the crestal part.

“Conventional methods cannot clean plaques on the surface of dental implants very well, so this new method could give dentists a new tool to better manage these fixtures which are becoming more common,” said Soyama.

Previous research has shown that water flow exerts shear stress to remove biofilm. In addition to this shear effect, the cavitating jet produces considerable force when the bubbles collapse, allowing the removal of biofilm particles. The researchers suggested that the two processes work in synergy to make the cavitating jet superior to the water jet when cleaning plaque off the irregular surface of dental implants.

The study, titled “Removal of oral biofilm on an implant fixture by a cavitating jet”, was published in the December issue of the Implant Dentistry journal.

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