Glass Ionomer Composite Resin is Better In Controllong The Growth of Streptococcus mutans Compared with Conventional Composite Resin In Vitro

        Composite resin is one of the most common materials used in dentistry.  Some modifications have been done to the resin matrix and filler in order to solve the secondary caries problem.  One of the modifications is providing antibacterial activity to composite resin. Amongs the dental restoratives used in dentistry, glass ionomer has been found to have antibacterial effect.  A recent development is resin composite containing glass ionomer filler particles.  The purpose of this study is to examine the antibacterial activity of composite resin containing glass ionomer filler particles to Streptococcus mutans compared with conventional composite resin in vitro.

            This study was an experimental study with randomized post test only control group design. This study has been done in Microbiology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University. The subjects of this study were Streptococcus mutans ATCC 35668, conventional composite resin and composite resin containing glass ionomer filler particle. Some composite resins were placed in Mueller Hinton Agar, then incubated for 24 hours. Datas were tested normality by Shapiro-Wilk test and homogenity by Levene’s test, then tested using One Way ANOVA. To know the difference between groups, the datas were then analized with Least Significant Difference (LSD) test.

The result showed the formation of clear zone around each sample, with diameter in control group was 4,23 mm, conventional resin composite group was 8,31 mm and glass ionomer resin composite was 11,77 mm. The clear zone had different diameter between two samples, where the diameter in glass ionomer composite resin seemed wider than conventional composite resin.  This results due to the difference in fluor characteristic (type, size, amount and “burst effect”).

 It is concluded that glass ionomer composite resin is better in controlling the growth of Streptococcus mutans compared with conventional composite resin in vitro.  So it can prevent the secondary caries problems. Hopefully, this result can be used for further study to examine the optimum fluor in composite resin and the effectivity of glass ionomer composite resin used in vivo.

Keywords: Streptococcus mutans, conventional composite resin, glass ionomer composite resin