Dental News - Nanotech makes fillings last longer

Paula Hinely, USA

Tue. 18 August 2009

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Augusta, GA, USA: A US research project is currently investigating a new technique that may extend the longevity of dental fillings. Dr Franklin Tay, Associate Professor of Endodontics at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry, has been awarded a two-year US$250,000 grant from the US National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for the investigation of the prevention of the ageing and degradation of resin–dentine bonding. This is to be accomplished by feeding minerals back into the collagen network through guided tissue remineralisation (GTR), which is a new nanotechnology process of growing extremely small, mineral-rich crystals and guiding them into the demineralised gaps between collagen fibres.

Dr Tay’s idea originated from his examination of the way crystals form in nature, such as in egg and abalone shells. The crystals, called hydroxyapatite, bond when proteins and minerals interact.

Dr Tay will use calcium phosphate, which is the primary component of dentine, enamel and bone, and two protein analogues, also found in dentine, to mimic nature, while controlling the size of each crystal. In theory, the crystals should lock the minerals into the hybrid layer and prevent it from degrading.

“Instead of dentists replacing teeth with failed bonds, we’re hoping that using these crystals during the bond-making process will provide the strength to save the bonds,” Dr Tay says. “Our end goal is that this material will repair a cavity on its own so that dentists don’t have to fill the tooth.”

According to research presented in the Journal of the American Dental Association, half of all composite resin tooth-coloured restorations fail within 10 years, and about 60 per cent of all operative dentistry is conducted to replace them. If Dr Tay’s concept of GTR is successful, he will create a delivery system with which to apply the crystals to the hybrid layer following the acid-etching process.

(Edited by Claudia Salwiczek, DTI)

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