Graphene–Chitosan Hybrid Dental Implants with Enhanced Antibacterial and Cell-Proliferation Properties
Sunho Park, Hye‐Ran Kim, Kyoung Soon Choi, Min-Kyung Ji, Sujin Kim, Yonghyun Gwon, Chan Park, Jangho Kim, Hyun‐Pil Lim
Abstract
Dental implants are widely used tooth replacement tools owing to their good oral rehabilitation and reconstruction capacities. Since dental implants are designed as a replacement for natural teeth, multi-functional abilities are desired to achieve successful implant treatment with improved osseointegration through promotion of mammalian cell activity and prevention of bacterial cell activity. In this study, we developed a graphene–chitosan hybrid dental implant (GC hybrid implant) using various concentrations of graphene, which demonstrated the different surface properties including increased wettability and roughness. Importantly, the GC hybrid implant under the optimal condition (i.e., 1% GC hybrid implant) could significantly promote osteoblast proliferation while reducing biofilm formation and bacterial activity. Our study demonstrates the potential of using this GC hybrid implant as a new type of dental implant, which can offer an effective design for the fabrication of advanced dental implants.