ABSTRACT

Background: Maxillofacial silicone is the most acceptable and mostly used material in maxillofacial prostheses fabrication but still beyond the ideal material. It has some problems with antimicrobial efficiency.

Aim: To add kappa-carrageenan powder to maxillofacial silicone and evaluate its efficacy against Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Methods: In this study, VST50 room temperature vulcanized maxillofacial silicone was used to prepare specimens to be tested and the ĸ-carrageenan powder was added as the antibacterial agent with selected percentages of 1wt.% and 2wt.% according to pilot study and bacterial adhesion test was used to evaluate its antibacterial efficacy by counting the adherent bacterial cells. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA tests which was considered statistically significant at a level of p< 0.05.

Results: Both experimental groups B (1wt.% ĸ- carrageenan powder addition) and C (2wt.% ĸ-carrageenan powder addition) showed a highly significant decrease of adherent bacterial cells compared to that of control group A (without addition). Experimental group C showed the lowest mean value among them (3.73±0.8667) followed by group B (5.30±0.8919) then the control group with value of (62.16±6.1190).

Conclusion: The ĸ-carrageenan powder is an effective antibacterial agent against S. epidermidis. And can be added to VST50 room temperature vulcanized maxillofacial silicone to decrease the adherent bacterial cells on its surface with both percentages, but 2wt.% is more effective than 1wt.%.

Keywords: maxillofacial silicone, kappa carrageenan, plant extract, bacterial adhesion, Staphylococcus epidermidis,