USE OF THE ELECTRICAL DEVICE ON DENTAL IMPLANT’S BACTERIAL BIOFILM: APRELIMINARY IN VITRO STUDY

Background. Mucositis and peri-implant disease are pathological conditions found following bacterial colonization on the peri-implant soft tissues and on the implant fixture during implant-prosthetic rehabilitation, from single edentulism to full-arch rehabilitation. The therapeutic approaches to the two pathological conditions use surgical and non-surgical therapeutic protocols, with the aim of eliminating the bacterial biofilm from the implant surface, through the use of mechanical, chemical or photodynamic agents. The aim was to evaluate the effect of the electric field generated by the Ximplant machine on the bacterial load and on the biofilm grown on the dental implants. Materials and methods. Twenty-eight dental implants were contaminated with the saliva of a donor, and subsequently fifteen implants were treated with the electric field generating machine while twelve were not treated. The bacterial biofilm was then measured by resazurin assay, both on treated and untreated implants. Results. The results revealed a difference between treated and untreated implants in terms of biofilm activity,as assessed by color change using the resazurin assay. Treated implants (n = 15) showed no color change across all observation time points (2 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days), indicating an absence of bacterial activity or residual biofilm. Conversely, all untreated implants (n = 12) exhibited a consistentcolor change starting at 2 hours, suggesting persistent biofilm activity. A sterile implant used as a negative control (n = 1) showed no color change throughout the experiment, confirming the absenceof contamination. Conclusion.The study showed preliminary success of the electrofield in reducing microbial populations and destroying clinical biofilm, compared to a sterile implant as a control