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The bactericidal effects of dental ultrasound on Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis
Author(s) -
O'Leary R.,
Sved A.M.,
Davies E.H.,
Leighton T.G.,
Wilson M.,
Kieser J. B.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of clinical periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.456
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1600-051X
pISSN - 0303-6979
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-051x.1997.tb00208.x
Subject(s) - porphyromonas gingivalis , actinobacillus , sonoluminescence , microbiology and biotechnology , sonication , chemistry , dentistry , cavitation , periodontitis , biology , medicine , acoustics , chromatography , physics
This study investigated the possible bactericidal acoustic effects of the dental ultrasonic sealer. Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis suspensions, were subjected to the vibrations of a Cavitron PI insert for 2.5 and 5.0 rain in an acoustically‐simulated pocket model and the survivors enumerated. The extent of any cavitation occurring within the pocket model to which the statistically significant bactericidal activity observed might be attributed, was determined by ‘sonoluminescence’, which was then investigated by photomultiplication techniques. However, these failed to detect any sonoluminescence within the pocket space and moreover, the necessary deflection of the water coolant away from the insert tip. to avoid flooding of the experimental pocket, proved to result in temperatures of 47.6®C and 52.3®C at the respective time intervals, and thereby constituted an alternative possible bactericidal mechanism. Examination of the effects of such temperature changes on the target bacteria then revealed statistically significant differences in the viable counts of both microorganisms after 5.0‐min periods, and as such were comparable to those previously detected in relation to the pocket model. Whilst it must be presumed that the bacteriolytic effect observed in the main investigation was due to the incidental temperature changes, in the absence of acoustic cavitation the influence of any associated acoustic microstreaming cannot be discounted. Further investigations to assess the bactericidal potential of acoustic phenomena using a modified experimental to exclude any hyperthermic effects are therefore necessary.