Reduced dental plaque accumulation on composite gold alloy margins

Restoration of tooth surfaces with materials that inhibit formation of heav y bacterial plaque accumulations could be important in the treatment of pat ients with existing oral disease or in reducing the likelihood for periodon tal disease. Captek(R) is a dental gold composite material used to produce copings for ceramometal restorations that has been reported to inhibit plaq ue accumulation. In this study, the oral bacteria of nine periodontally hea lthy subjects with a total of 42 gold composite copings were sampled. Contr alateral teeth with normal tooth surfaces were also sampled as controls. Th e quantitative presence of forty bacteria was determined in each sample by DNA:DNA hybridization. The results indicated that the porcelain/gold compos ite alloy coping surfaces had significantly fewer bacteria than the control normal tooth surfaces (71 % reduction). The percentage composition, howeve r. did not differ significantly between surfaces.