Bacterial adhesion to biomaterials: What regulates this attachment? A review

•Bacterial adhesion to the surface of dental materials play a significant role in infections.•The factors that govern microbial attachment involves different types of physical-chemical interactions and biological processes.•Studying bacterial adhesion makes it possible to understand the mechanisms involved in attachment and helps in the search for technologies that promote antibacterial surfaces. Bacterial attachment to biomaterials is of great interest to the medical and dental field due to its impact on dental implants, dental prostheses, and others, leading to the need to introduce methods for biofilm control and mitigation of infections. Biofilm adhesion is a multifactorial process and involves characteristics relevant to the bacterial cell as well as biological, chemical, and physical properties relative to the surface of biomaterials. Bacteria encountered different environmental conditions during their growth and developed interspecies communication strategies, as well as various mechanisms to detect the environment and facilitate survival, such as chemical sensors or physical detection mechanisms. However, the factors that govern microbial attachment to surfaces are not yet fully understood. In order to understand how bacteria interact with surfaces, as well as to characterize the physical-chemical properties of bacteria adhesins, and to determine their interrelation with the adhesion to the substrate, in recent years new techniques of atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been developed and helped by providing quantitative results. Thus, the purpose of this review is to gather current studies about the factors that regulate microbial adhesion to surfaces in order to offer a guide to studies to obtain technologies that provide an antimicrobial surface.