Surface energetics of antibiofilm property of dental material added with green synthesized copper nanoparticles.

Dental caries and lesions are difficult to treat during cement repairs. A remarkable antimicrobial therapeutic biomaterial is needed to fight dental caries and recurrent necrotic lesions. This study used Mentha longifolia extract to synthesize Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) with distinctive properties at room temperature (22-25 °C). These CuNPs were supplemented with cephalosporin antibiotics that act as a capping agent to explore their synergistic antibacterial potency. These nanoparticles were subjected to FTIR, XRD, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, and SEM for characterisation. These CuNPs capped with antibiotics were added to glass ionomer (GIC) cement. These GIC samples were divided into pure GIC and modified GIC samples. Antibiotic-supplemented CuNPs, conjugated with GIC, showed good effect against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as compared to conventional GIC, tested through a modified direct contact test. Among them, GIC enriched with cefotaxime-supplemented CuNPs exhibited excellent antibacterial effects, followed by Cefepime and Ceftriaxone-supplemented CuNPs, respectively. Pure GIC has the most negligible antibacterial effect. Further, the interaction of these modified GICs with the selected bacterial strains was studied using the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (XDLVO) approach. The results show that the modified GIC effectively inhibited biofilm formation on dental implants.