Efficacy of Experimental Mouth Rinses on Caries-Related Biofilms in vitro

This study assessed the efficacy of tin and Polyethylenglycol (PEG-3) tallow aminopropylamine in different concentrations on Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) biofilms to establish a new screening process for different antimicrobial agents and to gain more information on the antibacterial effects of these agents on cariogenic biofilms. Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) was used to determine differences in two growth parameters: lag time and growth rate; additionally, reduction in active biofilms was calculated. Experimental mouth rinses with 400 and 800 ppm tin derived from stannous fluoride (SnF(2)) revealed results (43.4 and 49.9% active biofilm reduction, respectively) similar to meridol mouth rinse (400 ppm tin combined with 1,567 ppm PEG-3 tallow aminopropylamine; 55.3% active biofilm reduction) (p > 0.05), while no growth of S. mutans biofilms was detected during 72 h for samples treated with an experimental rinse containing 1,600 ppm tin (100% active biofilm reduction). Only the highest concentration (12,536 ppm) of rinses containing PEG-3 tallow aminopropylamine derived from amine fluoride (AmF) revealed comparable results to meridol (57.5% reduction in active biofilm). Lower concentrations of PEG-3 tallow aminopropylamine showed reductions of 16.9% for 3,134 ppm and 33.5% for 6,268 ppm. Maximum growth rate was significantly lower for all the samples containing SnF(2) than for the samples containing control biofilms (p < 0.05); no differences were found between the control and all the PEG-3 tallow aminopropylamine (p > 0.05). The growth parameters showed high reproducibility rates within the treated groups of biofilms and for the controls; thus, the screening method provided reliable results.