Chitosan:Vitamin C Containing Hydrogels as a Prototype Functional Prolonged Pain Management Restorative Material In-Vitro Studies

Abstract

Restorative materials in the new era aim to be “bio-active” and long-lasting. As a part of our continuous interest of developing functional dual action restorative materials capable of being “bio-active” and wound healing, we design and evaluate several novel chitosan-vitamin C (5:1) containing hydrogels as a prototype of host:guest molecular free radical defense material containing hydroethanoic propolis extract (antioxidant containing material), naproxen, ibuprofen (non steroidal anti-inflammatory medication), or aspirin (pain relieve medication and free radical scavengers) as functional restorative materials. We will evaluate the physical properties, bonding to dentin as well as test the bioadhesion of the newly designed materials in order to access the suitability of these prototype materials as suitable restorative materials. Materials and Methods: The hydrogels were prepared by previously reported by us protocol. The physico-chemical features including surface morphology (SEM), release behaviors, stability of the therapeutic agent-antioxidant-chitosan and the effect of the hydrogels on the shear bond strength of dentin were measured and compared to the earlier reported chitosan-antioxidant containing hydrogels. Structural investigations of the reactive surface of the hydrogel were reported. Bio-adhesive studies were performed in order to assess the suitability of these designed materials. Results: Release of aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen conferred the added benefit of synergistic action of a functional therapeutic delivery when comparing the newly designed chitosan-based hydrogel restorative materials to the commercially available products alone. Either the release of therapeutic agents or the antioxidant stability was affected by storage over a 12-month period. All chitosan:vitamin C hydrogels showed gave significantly higher shear bond values than dentin treated or not treated with phosphoric acid, which highlighted the feasibility.