ReviewInternational journal of microbiology2025
Microbial Consortium-Mediated Degradation of Polyethylene Terephthalate in Orthodontic Aligners: A Comprehensive Review.
Review in International journal of microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The Environmental Burden and Sustainability Challenges of Clear Aligners: Implications for Public Health, Practice, Policy, and Future Research-A Scoping Review.International journal of dentistry · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this review, we critically assess microbial consortia-mediated biodegradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in orthodontic aligners as a means to address the environmental problems arising from biomedical plastic waste. PET's chemical stability and high crystallinity provide sufficient durability for clinical efficacy; however, natural degradation is hindered in the resulting environmental accumulation. Currently, the conventional disposal methods can lead to toxic emissions, so they have to be kept in the dark in terms of innovations that reduce or eliminate them. These microbial consortia utilize hairy dynamics of synergistic enzymatic activities, that is, PETase and MHETase, to degrade PET into assimilable monomers, with the potential to be a bioremediation strategy. In this paper, we summarize current analytical methodologies to assess degradation, present molecular tools to elucidate microbial community dynamics, and discuss biotechnological strategies to enhance enzymatic efficiency and process scale-up potential. Slow degradation rates, material complexity, and environmental variability are identified as challenges. Advances in enzyme engineering, bioaugmentation, and bioreactor design associated with biodegradation performance are reviewed, and future research directions that will enhance the ecosystemic performance of microbial consortia for eco-friendly and effective management of PET waste from orthodontic aligners within the framework of a circular bioeconomy are pointed out.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.