Gopathy Sridevi

By Gopathy Sridevi and Seshadri Srividya

Missing a permanent tooth is a miserable condition faced by a common man. A tooth decay, periodontitis, mechanical trauma, or any systemic complications lead to such a complication. These bone defects when left untreated lead to severe resorption of the alveolar bone. A proper dental filling with an appropriate bone substitute material could prevent such resorption and paves a way for subsequent implant placement. Dental implants are considered as the prime option by dentists to replace a single tooth or prevent bone resorption. A variety of bone substitutes are available differ in origin, consistency, particle size, porosity, and resorption characteristics. Herbal composites in dentistry fabricated using biphospho-calcium phosphate, casein, chitosan, and certain herbal extracts of Cassia occidentalis, Terminalia arjuna bark, Myristica fragans also were reported to possess a higher ossification property, osteogenic property and were able to repair bone defects. C. occidentalis was reported to stimulate mineralization of the bone and osteoblastic differentiation through the activation of the PI3K-Akt/MAPKs pathway in MC3T3-E1 cells of mice. This implant proved better osteoconductivity and bioactivity compared to pure HAP and other BCP ratios. Terminalia Arjuna was also worked in the incorporation in the graft to enhance the osteogenic property of the implant and gave good results. Another implant bone graft was synthesized containing BCP, biocompatible casein, and the extracts of Myristica fragans and subjected to in vitro investigations and the results revealed the deposition of apatite on the graft after immersing in SBF and also the ALP activity was high when treated with MG-63 cells, NIH-3 T3, and Saos 2 cell lines. This study indicates that the inclusion of plant extract enhances the osteogenic property of the graft. Thus, these novel dental implants incorporated with herbal composites evaluated by researchers revealed an enhanced bone healing, accelerates osseointegration, inhibits osteopenia, and inhibits inflammation. This application of herbal composite inclusion in dentistry and its applications has a greater potential to improve the success rate of dental implants and allows the implications of biotechnology in implant dentistry.

Part of the book: Current Concepts in Dental Implantology