Soon you may no longer have to worry about how long your dental repairs will last. A new dental reconstruction material developed at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology offers unprecedented improvements over existing acrylate-based fillers, according to its researchers.
Adapted from bone fracture glue research, the material can be molded in a clinical setting and surpasses currently used implant materials in stiffness, strength, biocompatibility, and adhesion, the researchers reported.
The material also bonds 160% better to tooth surfaces than current commercially available polymers, the researchers said, which means fewer patients would experience dental filler detachment. It has the potential for 3-D printing in a clinical setting as well.
“It provides higher strength, straightforward moldability, and non-toxicity. We believe this foretells a new era in hard tissue repair,” said Michael Malkoch, PhD, professor in the Department of Fibre and Technology at KTH.
The researchers see the work as a guide for the development of future materials for implants.
“The reason why this works is that we have elevated the number of chemical crosslinks in the materials to such level that the properties we receive are extraordinary,” said Malkoch.
The researchers used light-initiated thiol-yne coupling (TYC) chemistry to polymerize triazine-trione monomers, in contrast to the standard thiol-ene coupling systems currently used. The TYC reaction generates higher crosslinking density for more rigid and mechanically stronger materials.
“This is due to the nature of the carbon-carbon triple bond that covalently bond to two thiols via photochemical reactions,” said Malkoch.
“An important feature is the biological profile of the composition, and the final materials have an excellent biological profile,” said Malkoch. “Personally, I would rather have these materials as dental filler than an existing acrylate-based one, known for their allergenic properties and questionable compositions.
The research follows the team’s previous work in developing a bone fracture adhesive that combines the rigidity and load-bearing properties of dental resin composites with the bonding strength of self-etching primer.
The study, “The Dawn of Thiol-Yne Triazine Triones Thermosets as a New Material Platform Suited for Hard Tissue Repair,” was published by Advanced Materials.
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