Plasma in dentistry

Abstract

This review describes the contemporary aspects of plasma application in dentistry. Previous studies on plasma applications were classified into two categories, surface treatment and direct applications, and were reviewed, respectively according to the approach. The current review discussed modification of dental implant surface, enhancing of adhesive qualities, enhancing of polymerization, surface coating and plasma cleaning under the topics of surface treatment. Microbicidal activities, decontamination, root canal disinfection and tooth bleaching were reviewed as direct applications with other miscellaneous ones. Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma was of particular focus since it is gaining considerable attention due to the possibility for its use in living tissues. Future perspectives have also been discussed briefly. Although it is still not popular among dentists, plasma has shown promises in several areas of dentistry and is now opening a new era of plasma dentistry.

Surface Treatments and Functional Coatings for Biocompatibility Improvement and Bacterial Adhesion Reduction in Dental Implantology

“…When in contact with the body fluids, these materials lead to the formation of HA nanocrystals. Several methods have been tested for the deposition of CaP coating on Ti implants, including PS, sputtering, sol-gel deposition, and electrophoretic deposition processes, but PS is considered the most successful so far [28]. Strontium-containing HA coatings, grown by PLD or sol gel methods, have also been proposed in order to improve the osseointegration process [39,40].…”

“…In fact, plasma treatments show many advantages compared to wet techniques, such as acid-etching, including the absence of chemical residuals on the surface, the avoidance of chemical waste and the reduced safety concerns during manufacturing [28]. Plasma treatments can be divided in vacuum plasma treatments (also called reduced pressure plasma treatments) and atmospheric pressure plasma treatments (APP), depending on whether they are carried out in a vacuum vessel at a pressure lower than the atmospheric one, or at atmospheric pressure.…”

“…Plasma processes are often applied for cleaning and sterilization of dental implants after other surface treatments have been carried out, but they have also been tested for the acceleration of osseointegration [28][29][30][31] and the application of antibacterial properties to implants [28,29,32]. Argon and oxygen are the most used gases for these applications [28][29][30][31][32][33]. Plasma treatments also include plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) processes, where plasma is used to produce ions, which are accelerated towards the surface of the treated sample and are implanted into it [33].…”

Low temperature plasma applications in medicine

“…Possibilities of plasma application in dentistry include disinfection of tooth root canal, treatment of dental implants both for biofilm removal and improvement of bone cell adherence and therapy of intraoral infections and also wounds [15].…”

Aplicação De Plasma Spray No Recobrimento De Implantes Dentários

“…As partículas liberadas são lançadas em alta velocidade contra a superfície do implante. O plasma é aplicado para incorporar o titânio (Ti) e hidroxiapatita (HA) na superfície do implante [3] [9].…”