Arka Swarnakar, Samarth Kumar Agarwal,Romil Singhal, Swatantra Agarwal, Sandip Rajan, Ayush Kaushik

ABSTRACT

Aim:To evaluate the efficacy of three different polishing agents in preventing the adherence of Streptococcus mutans on polished denture surface. Materials and Method: The surface topography of heat activated polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was evaluated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) after they were mechanically polished with pumice, tripoli and aluminum oxide paste. After 24 hours the growth of Streptococcus mutans was calculated by counting the number of adhered colonies using florescent microscopy. Results:SEM images revealed the roughness average (Ra)values of PMMA samples polished with tripoli, resilit, pumice and unpolished control were 0.52µm,0.68µm, 3.07µm and 3.45µm, respectively.Adherence of Streptococcus mutanson samples polished with tripoli, resilit, pumiceand unpolished control were 8.10 CFU/µm2, 13.20CFU/µm2,19.90CFU/µm2and 33.20 CFU/µm2, respectively. An increase in surface smoothness resulted in a significant decrease of adherence. (p=0.02) Conclusion: Tripoli produced the smoothest surface among all other groups while pumice gave the least smooth polished surface. Adherence of Streptococcus mutans was least for tripoli polished samples and highest in case of those polished using pumice. Therefore, an increase in surface smoothness resulted in a decrease of microbial adherence.