A preliminary study on the preparation of cellulose nanofiber slurries containing peracetic acid for use as a denture cleaning material

Abstract

Cleaning dentures for the elderly is important to prevent aspiration pneumonia and to improve medical prognosis and life expectancy. A combination of mechanical and chemical methods is desirable for denture cleaning. However, there are few denture-cleaning materials that work both mechanically and chemically. In this study, a slurry was prepared by mixing peracetic acid (PAA), a high-level disinfectant, with cellulose nanofibers (CNF) at various ratios in order to develop a denture-cleaning material. We evaluated the material properties, viscosity, and biosafety of the slurry. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy showed that the PAA-CNF slurry exhibited characteristics of CNF. In addition, evaluation of line spread test values showed that the slurry exhibited operable viscosity at a CNF concentration of 500 mg/mL. Furthermore, cytotoxicity due to the elution of PAA-CNF slurry components on Ca9-22 cells evaluated using the WST-8 method showed no cytotoxicity under any of the mixing conditions (up to 20 ppm of PAA and 500 mg/mL for CNF) examined in this study. These findings suggest that PAA and CNF mixtures may be promising candidates for preparing denture-cleaning materials with bactericidal properties. (J Osaka Dent Univ 2024; 58: 421-427)