Microbial biofilms in endodontic infections: an update review

Biofilms and microbial aggregates are the common mechanisms for the survival of bacteria in nature. In other words, the ability to form biofilms has been regarded as a virulence factor. Microbial biofilms play an essential role in several infectious diseases such as pulp and periradicular pathosis. The aim of this article was to review the adaptation mechanisms of biofilms, their roles in pulpal and periapical pathosis, factors influencing biofilm formation, mechanisms of their antimicrobial resistance, models developed to create biofilms, observation techniques of endodontic biofilms, and the effects of root canal irrigants and medicaments as well as lasers on endodontic biofilms. The search was performed from 1982 to December 2010, and was limited to papers in English language. The keywords searched on Medline were "biofilms and endodontics," "biofilms and root canal irrigation," "biofilms and intra-canal medicament," and "biofilms and lasers." The reference section of each article was manually searched to find other suitable sources of information.