Dental caries is a commonly occurring non-communicable disease throughout the world that might compromise the quality of any individual's life. Glass ionomer cements (GIC) are the most acceptable restorative materials due to their ease of manipulation, minimal tooth loss and least invasive strategy; however, they lack mechanical stability that has become a point of concern. Nanoparticles (NPs) are an outstanding option for modifying and enhancing the properties of dental materials. The focus of this study was to prepare novel, biocompatible titania dioxide (TiO2) NPs as a dental-restorative material using an efficient probiotic Bacillus coagulans. The prepared NPs were incorporated into glass ionomer restorative material at varying concentrations and investigated for cell viability percentage, microhardness and surface morphology. Results indicated that pure 100% anatase phase TiO2 NPs with particle size of 21.84 nm arranged in smooth, spherical agglomerates and clusters forms. These NPs depicted cell viability > 90%, thus confirming their non-cytotoxic behavior. GIC restorative materials reinforced by 5% titania (TiO2) NPs demonstrated the highest microhardness in comparison to the control group and other experimental groups of the study. Surface morphology analysis revealed a reduction in cracks in this novel dental-restorative material supporting its compatible biological nature with better hardness strength and negligible crack propagation. Overall, these results indicated that TiO2 NPs produced using a biological approach could be easily used as restorative materials in dental applications.
Keywords: Bacillus coagulans; Glass ionomer cements; Surface morphology; Titania NPs (TiO2); Vickers microhardness.
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