3D printing dental composite resins with sustaining antibacterial ability

3D printing brought revolutionary changes to many industries, especially in the field of dentistry. However, dental restoration has a high incidence of secondary caries when patients wearing in the oral cavity. In this paper, we developed an antibacterial stereolithography resins (SLR) for digital light processing 3D printing by adding Ag-carrying halloysite nanotubes (Ag-HNT). The morphology and component of Ag-HNT were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The uniform distribution of Ag-HNT in SLR was investigated by TEM. The curing curve showed that photo-curable behavior of the composite resins was hardly affected by the addition of Ag-HNT. Three-point bending test indicated that bending strength of the samples increased by 25% after addition of 3% Ag-HNT. A continuous antibacterial ability of cured Ag-HNT/SLR was evidenced by culturing streptococcus mutans in the leaching solution of resins. L929 cells were cultured in the leaching solution for 48h, and the results of CCK-8 assay indicated that the composite resins had good cytocompatibility.