The Effect of Resin-Based Dental Sealant Containing Vanillin on Biofilm Formation of Candida albicans

Early childhood caries (ECC), or baby bottle tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases that affect young children at 6 years of age or younger. The disease is resulted from complex interactions between tooth structures and cariogenic microorganisms in dental biofilm after exposure to fermentable carbohydrates through improper feeding practices. This leads to a rapid development of demineralization of teeth shortly after they erupt in the oral cavity. Candida albicans have been reported recently to be associated with the pathogenesis of ECC. One of the general approaches currently used for the prevention of ECC is the application of dental sealant to occlusal (chewing surface) pits and fissures of caries-susceptible teeth. Many types of dental sealants have been extensively used and various antimicrobial agents were introduced to dental sealants to increase their caries preventive effect. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of vanillin incorporated resin-based dental sealant on C. albicans biofilm. Resin-based dental sealants (Clinpro; 3M ESPE, USA) containing different concentrations of vanillin (0%, 0.5%, 1% and 5% w/v) were prepared in 96-well plate. The suspension (10⁷ colony forming unit/mL) of each strain of Candida albicans (ATCC 10231, ATCC 18804 and 2 clinical isolates) was added to saliva-coated sealant resin samples and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 atmosphere for 24 h to allow the Candida biofilm formation. The quantity of vital biofilm was determined by WST Microbial Cell Counting Kit (Dojindo Molecular Technologies, USA) at 460 nm. All tests were done in triplicate and repeated three times. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s method were used to account for multiple comparisons. Statistical significance was set at p-value less than 0.05. The results showed that 0.5-5% vanillin-incorporated dental sealant resins showed a significant suppressive effect against all strains of Candida. No significant differences of anti-biofilm effects were found among Candida strains. Approximately 30-50% Candida biofilm reduction was noticed in sealant resins containing vanillin compared with controls without vanillin. In conclusion, the adding of vanillin (0.5-5% w/v) to dental sealant resins is effective in inhibiting biofilm formation of fungus related to early childhood caries, C. albicans. Therefore, the use of dental sealants containing vanillin has the potential to prevent this type of dental caries in young children and biofilm formation by oral Candida. Further clinical studies are required to investigate physical properties of this sealant and clinical evaluation in the patients.