Possibilities for biomaterials to impact the dental caries epidemic are reviewed with …

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Processes Governing Biofilm Formation
• Emerging Approaches to Dental Caries Prevention
• Materials or Surface Coatings That Prevent Bacterial Adhesion
• Surfaces That Change Phase on Command
• Passive or Active Controlled Release of Anti-infective Agents
• Passive Delivery Systems
• Responsive Drug Delivery Systems
• Anti-caries Therapeutics for Controlled Release
• Conclusion
• Competing interests
• References
• Tables

The surface-grafted thermally responsive polymer poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM) has a critical-solubility temperature of about 32°C, making it insoluble in water at temperatures above 32°C but soluble at temperatures below 32°C.

In lab tests, >90% of microorganisms (Staphylococcus epidermidis, Halomonas marina) and naturally-occurring marine microorganisms that attached to PNIPAM grafted to polystyrene surfaces were removed immediately when the hydration state of the polymer was changed by simply rinsing the samples in cold (4°C) water [3]. Confluent sheets of mammalian cells can also be rapidly detached from similar PNIPAM-grafted surfaces when the temperature is shifted from 37°C to room temperature. Whether temperature changes can remove thick bacterial biofilms from such surfaces remains to be evaluated.