PLoS ONE (Jan 2017)

In Vitro-Activity of Er:YAG Laser in Comparison with other Treatment Modalities on Biofilm Ablation from Implant and Tooth Surfaces.

  • Sigrun Eick,
  • Ivan Meier,
  • Florian Spoerlé,
  • Philip Bender,
  • Akira Aoki,
  • Yuichi Izumi,
  • Giovanni E Salvi,
  • Anton Sculean

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171086
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. e0171086

Abstract

Read online

Bacterial biofilms play a major role in the etiology of periodontal and peri-implant diseases. The aim of the study was to evaluate the removal of bacterial biofilms and attachment of epithelial cells (EC), gingival fibroblasts (GF) and osteoblast-like cells (OC) to dentin and titanium surfaces after Er:YAG laser (Er:YAG) in comparison with other treatment methods.Multi-species bacterial biofilms were grown on standardized dentin and titanium specimens with a sand-blasted and acid etched (SLA) surface for 3.5 d. Thereafter, the specimens were placed into artificially-created pockets. The following methods for biofilm removal were used: 1) Gracey (dentin) or titanium curettes (CUR), 2) Er:YAG, 3) photodynamic therapy (PDT) and 4) CUR with adjunctive PDT (CUR/PDT). Colony forming units (CFUs) of the remaining biofilms and attachment of EC, GF and OC were determined. Statistical analysis was performed by means of ANOVA with post-hoc LSD.All treatment methods decreased statistically significantly (p<0.001) total CFUs in biofilms compared with untreated dentin and titanium surfaces respectively. On dentin, Er:YAG was equally efficient as CUR and PDT but inferior to CUR/PDT (p = 0.005). On titanium, surfaces, the use of Er:YAG resulted in statistically significantly superior biofilm removal compared to the 3 other treatments (each p<0.001). Counts of attached EC, GF and OC were the lowest on untreated contaminated dentin and titanium surfaces each. After CUR/PDT higher EC counts were found on dentin (p = 0.006). On titanium, all decontamination methods statistically significantly increased (p<0.001) the counts of attached EC without differences between groups. Statistically significantly higher counts of GF (p = 0.024) and OC (p<0.001) were observed after Er:YAG decontamination compared with untreated surfaces.Ablation of subgingival biofilms and in particular decontamination of titanium implant surfaces with an Er:YAG laser seem to be a promising approach and warrants further investigations.