In vitro streptococcal adherence on prosthetic and implant materials. Interactions with physicochemical surface properties.

The aim of this study was to evaluate streptococcal adherence to eight currently used prosthetic and implant materials, and enamel samples, after a salivary coating and to investigate the influence of substrata surface free energy (SFE) and its polar and non-polar components, as well as bacterial surface characteristics, on bacterial adherence. Our results indicate a moderate hydrophobic character of saliva-coated surfaces and a pronounced basic character of the polar component of SFE values, except for one substrata. The lowest colonization was observed with enamel samples and the lowest values of adherent bacteria on the different substrata were observed with the hydrophilic bacterial strain. Both the nature of the substrata and the nature of the bacterial strains could have an effect on the extent of bacterial adhesion. When the interrelationship between the number of adherent bacteria and the surface properties of bacteria and substrata were analysed, bacterial adherence correlated with the non-polar component of substrata SFE (r = 0.8, P = 0.02) and with the adhesion to the solvents (r = 0.8, P < 0.0001). These results are consistent with the thermodynamic theory and underline the importance of acid-base characteristics of the cell surface when one is studying bacterial adherence on dental casting alloys and implant materials.