Cold atmospheric plasma as an emerging adjunct in dental care: Mechanisms, efficacy, and clinical translation

Abstract

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has emerged as a novel adjunctive modality in dentistry, offering dual benefits of antimicrobial efficacy and tissue regeneration. Between 2020 and 2025, both international and Persian-language studies have demonstrated CAP’s ability to disrupt resistant biofilms, reduce microbial load in root canals, enhance dentinal sealer penetration, and improve implant surface properties [6–14]. Safety assessments consistently report minimal thermal rise and negligible cytotoxicity, supporting its biocompatibility. Moreover, CAP has shown regenerative potential by stimulating angiogenesis and re‑epithelialization in oral tissues [10]. Despite these promising outcomes, heterogeneity in device types, working gases, and dosing parameters remains a barrier to standardized clinical adoption. Most clinical studies, including those conducted in Iran, are preliminary and limited in scale. Future research should prioritize multicenter randomized controlled trials, harmonized dose reporting, and long‑term safety evaluations. Collectively, CAP represents a transformative technology in dental care, bridging antimicrobial control with regenerative medicine, and holds promise for integration into endodontic, periodontal, and implant therapies