Nanotechnology in Dentistry Creates Stronger Fillings

Dental implants

Breakthroughs in nanotechnology don’t just limit their effect to the electronics industry. Recent advancements in the industry have allowed dentists to severely cut down on their workload in a way you may not have expected.

Dentists use dental composites to restore teeth to their original hardness and rigidity, making them essential in dental repairs such as restoration fillings. They are typically made of amalgams such as composites made of silica, plastic compounds or ceramic, or of mixtures of silver, mercury or tin.

The problem is that these can be prone to breakages and suffer from a short life span. In fact, it is thought that replacement fillings make up 75% of dentist’s work. The use of nanotechnology in dentistry has allowed engineers to come up with a viable solution to this problem.

Using Nanotechnology

The short lifespan of current dental composites have led engineers to look into the concept of using nanotechnology in dentistry, with fillings that could last longer than the conventional kind. The benefit of using nanomaterial is that when a material becomes smaller, it reduces the chance of it containing a defect, thus increasing the strength of that material.

The Development of NovaPro Flow

Hao Li, a professor at the University of Missouri’s college of engineering has developed a “flowable

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2015-11-23 12:33:07). Nanotechnology in Dentistry Creates Stronger Fillings. Australian Science. Retrieved: Mar 27, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/health/nanotechnology-in-dentistry-creates-stronger-fillings/