Efficacy of antibacterial sealing gel and O-ring to prevent microleakage at the implant abutment interface: an in vitro study.

Gaps and hollow spaces at the implant abutment interface will act as a bacterial reservoir that may cause peri-implantitis. Hence, the sealing ability of O-ring (in addition to polysiloxane) and GapSeal (an antibacterial sealing gel) was evaluated. A total of 45 identical implant systems (ADIN Dental Implant Systems) were divided into 3 groups of 15 implants each: an unsealed group, a group sealed with O-rings, and a group sealed with GapSeal gel. The implant and abutment were gamma sterilized after assembly. Two implants from each group were randomly incubated in sterile brain heart infusion (BHI) broth tubes and checked for sterility. The remaining 13 implants were incubated in BHI broth inoculated with Enterococcus and incubated for 5 days. They were then removed from the tubes, dried aseptically, placed in 2% sodium hypochlorite solution for 30 minutes, and washed with sterile saline for 5 minutes. Next, the assembly was dried aseptically and put in sterile BHI broth tubes and incubated for 24 hours to check surface sterility. Keeping 2 implants as controls from each group, the remaining 11 implants were dismantled group-wise and placed in liquid BHI broth; the test tubes were then shaken thoroughly so that the broth would come in contact with all implant surfaces. The solution from this tube was poured on pre-prepared sterile agar plates and incubated for 24 hours. The colonies formed on the agar plate were then counted using a digital colony counter. The data thus obtained were subjected to statistical analysis by Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and Mann-Whitney U test. It was concluded that though microbial growth is seen in all the 3 groups, the least growth was seen in the GapSeal group followed by the O-ring group.