Hossein Bassir, DDS, DMSc, of the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, has received funding from the American Academy of Implant Dentistry Foundation for the development of scaffold technology in support of the regeneration of bone tissue.
Despite the development of several treatment modalities to achieve bone regeneration in the oral cavity, the school reports, the procedures requiring it have remained technically challenging with a considerable variability of success.
The presence of sufficient bone quantity and quality is necessary for implant placement, the school continues, with many cases lacking in quantity as a result of trauma, tooth loss, or periodontal disease.
Bassir will lead a team of scientists from the Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine and the University of California Los Angeles Samueli School of Engineering in developing technology intended to overcome current complications in bone regeneration.
According to Bassir, assistant professor and director of the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Periodontics, Department of Periodontology, the project focuses on engineering hydrogel-based and highly adhesive scaffolds with osteoinductive properties.
Unlike current grafting materials that lack adhesion to soft and hard tissues, the new scaffold technology will form a solid gel material with a cell-supportive nature, resulting in firm adherence to both soft and hard tissues. It can be polymerized in seconds using commercially available dental curing lights.
“This new class of scaffolds can be used as next-generation biomaterials for the regeneration of bone tissue due to their cytocompatibility, cell-supportive nature, adhesive properties, and osteoinductive capabilities,” said Bassir.
The project is the first phase of larger efforts with the goal of translating the engineered biomaterials into clinical treatment to improve the outcomes of bone reconstruction surgeries. The initial findings are expected to be established within a year.
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