IN VITRO ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSALLY UTILIZED IMPLANT RESTORATIVE DENTAL MATERIAL’S IMPACT ON THE ARCHITECTURAL STABILITY OF GINGIVAL FIBROBLASTS IN THE PRESENCE OF A COMMON ENDOTOXIN

Abstract

Dental implants have been utilized in the last several decades to replace missing teeth. Various factors may result in the loss of teeth. The most common causes of tooth loss are often caries or periodontal disease. The use of a dental implant restored with a porcelain fused to metal crown is often the standard. The purpose of this study was to assess the architectural integrity of gingival fibroblasts at the cellular level when exposed to universally utilized restorative dental material; porcelain, in the presence of a periodontal pathogen, Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS-PG). Human gingival fibroblasts were exposed to Porcelain (.1 g) in combination with LPS-PG (10 μL), at 24, 48, and 72 hour durations. When assessing for cellular metabolic activity and viability, no significant differences were noted between the control and experimental groups. Contrastingly, when assessing for oxidative stress, the experimental groups were statistically significantly different from the control at the 48 and 72 hour phases (P<0.001). H&E staining of the experimental groups showed irregular shaped cells with loss of density, vacuolization, coarse cytoplasm, and hyperchromatic nuclei.