Mouths offer the perfect environments for microbial cell formation, promoting the growth of biofilms, for example, on teeth. Dental biofilm exhibits strong resistance to antibiotics and is a cause of many dental diseases. Common strategies for dental biofilm removal involve the addition of high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), which increases tooth sensitivity, or mechanical procedures. Here, we report a different approach based on self-propelled micromachines with high antibacterial activity for the degradation of dental biofilm. Such microrobots use low concentrations of fuel for their propulsion, and they achieve an efficient dental biofilm disruption in only 5 min of treatment. Moreover, these microrobots are biocompatible with epidermal and organ cells and may stimulate the immune system to fight against microbial infection. This approach of exploiting the active motion of bubble-propelled catalytic micromachines for oral biofilm disruption may open the door for more efficient and sophisticated treatments in dentistry.

口腔为微生物细胞的形成提供了理想的环境，从而促进了生物膜（例如在牙齿上）的生长。牙科生物膜对抗生素具有很强的抵抗力，并且是许多牙科疾病的原因。去除牙齿生物膜的常见策略包括添加高浓度的过氧化氢（H ₂ O ₂），从而提高牙齿敏感性或机械程序。在这里，我们报告了一种基于自行式微型机器的不同方法，该微型机器具有很高的抗菌活性，可降解牙齿生物膜。这种微型机器人使用低浓度的燃料进行推进，并且仅在5分钟的处理时间内即可实现有效的牙齿生物膜破坏。而且，这些微型机器人与表皮和器官细胞具有生物相容性，并且可以刺激免疫系统抵抗微生物感染。利用气泡推进的催化微机的主动运动进行口腔生物膜破坏的这种方法可能为牙科领域更有效，更复杂的治疗打开了大门。