Resin Composites with Anti-Biofouling Zwitterionic Polymer and Silica/Zirconia Filler for Digital Light Processing (DLP) of Dental Protheses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new 3D-printable resin composite for dental prostheses that resists bacterial adhesion and has strong mechanical properties.

Contribution

A novel resin composite with zwitterionic polymer and silica-zirconia filler for anti-biofouling dental 3D printing is developed.

Findings

7 wt% MPC reduced bacterial adhesion by 97.4% for E. coli and 86.5% for S. aureus.

30 vol% γ-MPS-treated silica-zirconia achieved flexural strength of 103.4 ± 6.1 MPa.

The composite met ISO 10477 standards for dental materials even at 40 vol% filler.

Abstract

This study aimed to develop an innovative resin composite with anti-biofouling properties, tailored to prosthesis fabrication in dentistry using a digital light processing (DLP) 3D-printing technique. The resin composite was formulated using a blend of dental monomers, with the integration of 2-methacryloyloxylethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) with anti-biofouling behavior and γ-MPS-treated silica-zirconia powder for simultaneous mechanical reinforcement. The overall characterization of the resin composite was carried out using various contents of MPC incorporated into the resin (0–7 wt%) for examining the rheological behavior, photopolymerization, flexural strength/modulus, microstructure and anti-biofouling efficiency. The resin composite demonstrated a significant reduction in bacterial adhesion (97.4% for E. coli and 86.5% for S. aureus) and protein adsorption (reduced OD value from 1.3 ± 0.4 to 0.8 ± 0.2) with 7 wt% of MPC incorporation, without interfering with photopolymerization to demonstrate potential suitability for 3D printing without issues (p < 0.01, and p < 0.05, respectively). The incorporation and optimization of γ-MPS-treated silica-zirconia powder (10–40 vol%) enhanced mechanical properties, leading to a reasonable flexural strength (103.4 ± 6.1 MPa) and a flexural modulus (4.3 ± 0.4 GPa) at 30 vol% (n = 6). However, a further increase to 40 vol% resulted in a reduction in flexural strength and modulus; nevertheless, the results were above ISO 10477 standards for dental materials.

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