The antimicrobial activity of a dentin conditioner combined with antibacterial agents.

Dental hand instruments are not efficient in removing all infected dentin when performing carious removal for minimal intervention techniques. The use of an antibacterial dentin conditioner may therefore be useful when restoring cavities that have residual carious dentin. Antibacterial agents--chlorhexidine hydrochloride, cetylpyridinium chloride, cetrimide, benzaIkonium chloride and sodium hypochlorite, were added either to a dentin conditioner used for glass ionomer cements or distilled water at 1% concentration. Dentin conditioning solutions at pH 2.5, 4.9 and 7.7 were also prepared, along with 1% aqueous thymol. Using an agar diffusion test, 25 microl aliquots were examined for their inhibitory effects on three cariogenic bacteria. After 24 hours, an agar pellet was extracted adjacent to the agar well and placed on a second inoculated agar plate to observe sustained inhibitory effects, after which this procedure was repeated one more time. Antibacterial dentin conditioners showed significant inhibitory effect compared to the control over the three test periods (p<0.016). The combination of dentin conditioners with antibacterial agents significantly reduced the inhibitory effect compared to the antibacterial aqueous solutions (p<0.016). One-percent aqueous thymol showed no inhibitory effect against the test bacteria. The cetrimide-dentin conditioner showed the greatest inhibitory effect against all three test bacteria over the three experimental periods (p<0.016). The inhibitory effect of antibacterial agents was significantly reduced when combined with a dentin conditioner. Only the cetrimide-dentin conditioner combination produced significant inhibitory effects against all three test organisms.