Modelling the hydrodynamics of swimming fish. From individuals to infinite schools

PhD ceremony: Mr. D.A.P. Reid, 13.15 uur, Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Modelling the hydrodynamics of swimming fish. From individuals to infinite schools

Promotor(s): prof. C.K. Hemelrijk

Faculty: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation cause a variety of serious problems during orthodontic treatment, such as enamel demineralization and soft tissue inflammation. Understanding bacterial adhesion forces to orthodontic materials is an important challenge in both clinical and fundamental orthodontics and allows for the development of preventive measures. The focus of this thesis is to study adhesion forces of oral bacterial strains to orthodontic materials using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results show that the adhesives exert the strongest bacterial adhesion forces; bacterial adhesion forces increase with increasing adhesion time and increasing surface roughness of orthodontic adhesives; non-specific adhesion force is repulsive on nonconductive surface and attractive on conductive surface, while hydrogen bonding force is always attractive and responsible for bacterial bond strengthening on orthodontic materials; quaternary ammonium can be effectively incorporated into composite for orthodontic biofilm prevention in vitro.