Use of Gaseous Plasma for Dental Applications

Plasma technology is a rapidly growing field of science that permeates various branches of medicine and dental medicine. In dental medicine, cold or nonthermal gaseous plasma can be used directly in the oral cavity for the surface treatment of hard dental tissues, periodontal tissues, or oral mucosa or indirectly for treating dental ma-terials before intraoral use or placement. Simplified atmospheric-pressure plasma de-vices in plasma pencils or jets have broadened the spectrum of plasma technology ap-plications for safe plasma treatment of living tissues. Cold gaseous plasma also allows surface treatment of various heat-sensitive materials. Dental alloys, polymers, waxes, and ceramics can be decontaminated or disinfected with plasma treatment. Antimi-crobial properties of cold atmospheric plasma have been demonstrated to facilitate the treatment of oral mucosa infections, dental caries, and endodontic space infections. Various dental materials can also be functionalized through plasma surface treatment to improve their biocompatibility, adhesive properties, wettability, or permeability. Promising results of cold plasma treatment have also been shown in the bleaching of teeth with external or internal staining and the enhancement of the adhesion of dental composites to dentin. Plasma may also serve as a method of dental armamentarium cleaning and sterilization. Although the use of cold gas plasma is not yet part of the standard procedures in the daily clinical practice of dentists, promising results from preclinical and clinical research are encouraging further development and exploration of this technology.