Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of heat-cure denture base resin materials incorporated with silver nanoparticles

Background: Poly (Methyl methacrylic acid) based materials are the most widely used for the fabrication of removable complete and partial dentures. Certain microorganisms adhere to the tissue surface of a denture base, especially on palatal region, often leading to Denture stomatitis. Numerous attempts were made to treat the denture stomatitis with various antifungal agents showing variable success rates. This may be attributed to the loss of the drug rapidly into the saliva, inhomogeneous distribution of the drug and the development of resistance to antifungal therapy. Aim: This study was done to evaluate the effect of incorporating various concentrations of silver nanoparticles on the antimicrobial activity of heat-cure denture base resin materials. Methods: Silver nanoparticles were incorporated at various concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 wt%) into three heat-cure denture base materials. A total of 300 disc-shaped specimens (10 × 2 mm) of heat-cure acrylic resin were made using compression molding technique which comprises 100 specimens with each denture base material. Fifty specimens from each denture base materials were allocated to each microorganism used in the study which comprises into five groups with ten specimens (n=10) for each concentration such as control, 0.5wt%, 1.0wt%, 2.0wt% and 5.0wt% concentrations of silver nanoparticles. Antimicrobial activity of control and modified specimens were evaluated using direct contact method against C albicans, and S Mutans by counting the number of colony-forming units. The data were subjected to One way ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests for statistical analyses. Results: Significant(P<0.05) differences were observed in the antimicrobial activity against C albicans and S Mutans between the control and modified groups of heat-cure denture base resin materials. Conclusion: Silver nanoparticles are the favourable materials to incorporate into denture base materials as they exhibit superior antimicrobial activity