Evaluation of Antimicrobial Effectiveness of Dental Cement Materials on Growth of Different Bacterial Strains

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effectiveness of dental cement materials for the prevention of bacterial growth, which can cause failure of fixed cementation. MATERIAL/METHODS: We developed an agar diffusion disk test in-house to evaluate the antibacterial properties of 3 commercially available dental cement materials (Ketac, Harvard FLB, and Panavia SA Universal Dual Resin cements) compared with a negative control. The materials were tested for the inhibition against Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 10449), Streptoccocus salivarius (ATCC 25975), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), and Lactobacilus acidophilus (ATCC 4356). The antimicrobial effectiveness of materials was expressed as the diameters of the inhibition zones around the disk. RESULTS: Overall, 240 specimens were tested. All cement materials showed antimicrobial effectiveness. Different microbial strains reacted differently to the different dental cements (all P<0.001). The bacterial strain of S. mutans showed the largest zones of inhibition of all cements, and E. faecalis was less susceptible. Statistically significant differences were observed when comparing different materials among each other (P<0.001). The fluoride-releasing material Panavia was significantly superior to the other 2 materials (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Fluoride-releasing dental cements showed antimicrobial properties, showing resin cements having superior antimicrobial effects when compared with conventional glass ionomer or zinc phosphate cements.