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Review
. 2024 Apr 29;17(9):2100.
doi: 10.3390/ma17092100.

The Contribution of Scanning Force Microscopy on Dental Research: A Narrative Review

Christine Müller-Renno  1 , Christiane Ziegler  1
Affiliations
Review

The Contribution of Scanning Force Microscopy on Dental Research: A Narrative Review

Christine Müller-Renno et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Scanning force microscopy (SFM) is one of the most widely used techniques in biomaterials research. In addition to imaging the materials of interest, SFM enables the mapping of mechanical properties and biological responses with sub-nanometer resolution and piconewton sensitivity. This review aims to give an overview of using the scanning force microscope (SFM) for investigations on dental materials. In particular, SFM-derived methods such as force-distance curves (scanning force spectroscopy), lateral force spectroscopy, and applications of the FluidFM® will be presented. In addition to the properties of dental materials, this paper reports the development of the pellicle by the interaction of biopolymers such as proteins and polysaccharides, as well as the interaction of bacteria with dental materials.

Keywords: dental biofilm; dental materials; dental research; pellicle; scanning force microscopy; scanning force spectroscopy; single-cell force spectroscopy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Principle of SFM. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Sketch of the most prominent SFM imaging modes in dental application. (b) Lennard–Jones potential, describing the tip–sample interaction. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Exemplary force–distance curve. Blue: trace; red: retrace. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 4
Figure 4
SFM image of the enamel surface. (a) A 10 µm height image which contains the topographic information. (b) A 10 µm phase image in which chemical differences determine the contrast. * of the scale bar refers to phase shift (c) Overlay of height (a) and phase (b) image revealing enamel prisms (dark) and proteinaceous regions (bright). Reproduced with permission from Springer [22].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Variation in the enamel surface topography with different immersion times treated with Coca-Cola®, Sprite®, and orange juice (Minute Maid®). Scale bars 2 µm. Reproduced with permission from Science Direct [23].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Topography (A), Young’s Modulus (B), and adhesion (C) of unetched natural enamel mapped with Peak Force QNM. Reproduced with permission from Machoy et al. [37].
Figure 7
Figure 7
The cartoons show the preparation process of a bacterial probe using poly-l-lysine (top image) and the measurement process of single-cell force spectroscopy (SCFS) (bottom image). Reproduced with permission from Science Direct [64].
Figure 8
Figure 8
Mean values of the measured adhesion force between BSA and the investigated dental materials (natural enamel and the restorative materials ceramic, composite, dental gold, dental titanium, PMMA, PTFE) as a function of their wettability and solution pH. The connection lines are only guides to the eye. Reproduced with permission from ACS Publications [20].
Figure 9
Figure 9
Exemplary force–distance curves (left) and single-cell adhesion forces (right) of oral bacteria (Streptococcus oralis, Actinomyces naeslundii, Veillonella dispar) on titanium in different buffers (PBS = phosphate-buffered saline; RTF = anaerobe-reduced transport fluid). * marks the significant difference in the adhesion forces as a function of the used buffer [52].
Figure 10
Figure 10
The cartoons show the single-cell lateral force microscopy measurement conduct (top). The SFM images before (A) and after the dislodgment test (B) to distinguish the bacterial displacement (down). Reproduced with permission from AVS [81].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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