Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > A Tougher Tooth: A new dental restoration composite developed by UCSB scientists proves more durable than the conventional material

Photo Credit:
COURTESY IMAGE
Photo Credit: COURTESY IMAGE

Abstract:
Fewer trips to the dentist may be in your future, and you have mussels to thank.

Inspired by the mechanisms mussels use to adhere to inhospitable surfaces, UC Santa Barbara researchers have developed a new type of dental composite that provides an extra layer of durability to treated teeth. The potential payoff? Longer lasting fillings, crowns, implants and other work.

A Tougher Tooth: A new dental restoration composite developed by UCSB scientists proves more durable than the conventional material

Santa Barbara, CA | Posted on August 22nd, 2017

“It’s as hard as a typical dental restoration but less likely to crack,” Kollbe Ahn, a materials scientist at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute, said of the composite. The research is highlighted in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper, of which Ahn is the corresponding author, is the result of collaboration between research and industry.

On average, a dental restoration lasts five to 10 or so years before needing replacement. The time frame depends on the type of restoration and how well the patient cares for the treated tooth. However, the continual onslaught of chewing, acidic and hard foods, poor hygiene, nighttime tooth grinding, generally weak teeth and even inadequate dental work can contribute to a filling’s early demise — and another expensive and possibly less-than-pleasant experience in the dental chair.

According to Ahn, one of the primary reasons restorations fall out or crack is brittle failure of the bond with the surrounding tooth. “All dental composites have micro-particles to increase their rigidity and prevent their shrinkage during their curing process,” he explained. “But there’s a trade-off: When the composite gets harder, it gets more brittle.”

With enough pressure or wear and tear, a crack forms, which then propagates throughout the entire restoration. Or, the gap between the tooth and the restoration results in restoration failures, including marginal tooth decay.

So Ahn and his colleagues looked to nature — mussels, to be exact — to find a way not only to maintain strength and hardness but also to add durability. Having perfected the art of adhering to irregular surfaces under the variable conditions of the intertidal zone — evolving to resist pounding waves, the blazing heat of the sun and cycles of salt water immersion and windy dryness — mussels presented the ideal model for more durable dental restoration materials. The byssal threads they use to affix to surfaces allow them to resist the forces that would tear them from their moorings.

“In nature, the soft collagenous core of the mussel’s byssal threads is protected by a 5-to-10 micrometer thick, hard coating, which is also extensible and thus, tough,” Ahn said. This durability and flexibility allow the mollusks to stick to wet mineral surfaces in harsh environments that involve repeated push-and-pull stress.

Key to this mechanism is what the scientists call dynamic or sacrificial bonding — multiple reversible and weak bonds on the sub-nanoscopic molecular level that can dissipate energy without compromising the overall adhesion and mechanical properties of the load-bearing material.

“Say you have one strong bond,” Ahn explained. “It may be strong but once it breaks, it breaks. If you have several weaker bonds, you would have to break them one by one.” Breaking each weak bond, he continued, would dissipate energy, so the overall energy required to break the material would be greater than with a single strong bond.

This type of bonding occurs in many biological systems, including animal bone and tooth. The mussel’s byssus contain a high number of unique chemical functional groups called catechols, which are used to prime and promote adhesion to wet mineral surfaces. The new study shows that using a catecholic coupling agent instead of the conventional silane coupling agent provides 10 times higher adhesion and a 50 percent increase in toughness compared to current dental restorative resin composites.

While research has proven this toughening mechanism in soft materials, this study is one of the first — if not the first — to prove it with rigid and load-bearing materials.

This proof-of-concept, which also demonstrates no cytotoxicity, could mean tougher, more durable dental fillings. And that, in the long run, could mean fewer dental visits. Because each replacement filling also requires the dentist to file the surrounding tooth to prime its surface, given enough replacements a tooth might need to be crowned or extracted; and if not replaced, the tooth loss could have adverse consequences for the individual’s diet and health.

The next step, Ahn said, is to increase the material’s durability even further.

“By changing the molecular design you could have even denser coupling agents that exist on the surface, and then we can have a stronger and more durable dental composite,” he said, estimating a commercial product within a couple of years.

Ahn credits the interdisciplinary research environment at UCSB for the development of the new load bearing polymer composites such as this dental restoration material. The project builds on the fundamental mussel-mimetic research that UCSB molecular biologist Herbert Waite conducted over several decades, which has been brought into collaboration with Jinsoo Ahn, a dentist from Seoul National University. This project also builds on the work of other UCSB researchers, including surface physicist Jacob Israelachvili’s expertise with surface interactions and forces; physical chemist Joan-Emma Shea’s simulations of how individual molecules adsorb to surfaces; and mechanical engineer Megan Valentine’s expertise in mechanical testing.

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Sonia Fernandez
(805) 893-4765


Andrea Estrada
(805) 893-4620

Copyright © University of California, Santa Barbara

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

INRS and ELI deepen strategic partnership to train the next generation in laser science:PhD students will benefit from international mobility and privileged access to cutting-edge infrastructure June 6th, 2025

Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025

Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025

A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025

Possible Futures

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers several steps closer to harnessing patient's own T-cells to fight off cancer June 6th, 2025

Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025

Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025

A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025

Discoveries

Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025

Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025

Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025

A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025

Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance

Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025

A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025

Institute for Nanoscience hosts annual proposal planning meeting May 16th, 2025

Superconductors: Amazingly orderly disorder: A surprising effect was discovered through a collaborative effort by researchers from TU Wien and institutions in Croatia, France, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, and the US during the investigation of a special material: the atoms are May 14th, 2025

Announcements

INRS and ELI deepen strategic partnership to train the next generation in laser science:PhD students will benefit from international mobility and privileged access to cutting-edge infrastructure June 6th, 2025

Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025

Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025

A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025

Research partnerships

INRS and ELI deepen strategic partnership to train the next generation in laser science:PhD students will benefit from international mobility and privileged access to cutting-edge infrastructure June 6th, 2025

Superconductors: Amazingly orderly disorder: A surprising effect was discovered through a collaborative effort by researchers from TU Wien and institutions in Croatia, France, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, and the US during the investigation of a special material: the atoms are May 14th, 2025

HKU physicists uncover hidden order in the quantum world through deconfined quantum critical points April 25th, 2025

SMART researchers pioneer first-of-its-kind nanosensor for real-time iron detection in plants February 28th, 2025

Dental

Getting to the root of tooth replantation challenges: Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) report a delivery system that promotes healing in tooth replantation in rats September 17th, 2021

Innovations in dentistry: Navigational surgery, robotics, and nanotechnology October 2nd, 2020

First measurement of electron energy distributions, could enable sustainable energy technologies June 5th, 2020

Gas storage method could help next-generation clean energy vehicles: Tremendous amounts of hydrogen and methane can be stored in nanoscopic pores April 17th, 2020

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project