Tooth cover
Japanese scientists have created artificial tooth enamel
The described "dental pad" is made of a wear-resistant and extremely elastic material, which is based on calcium hydroxyapatite, a mineral of natural tooth enamel. Covering the teeth with this material should not only protect against caries, but also protect against hyperesthesia (hypersensitivity) of the teeth.
"This is the world's first elastic apatite film, which we hope will find application for protecting teeth or restoring damaged enamel," says Shigeki Hontsu from the Faculty of Biological Sciences and Technology of Kinki University. "Dentists could not even dream of an elastic apatite film to restore damaged areas of the tooth, but we have created artificial tooth enamel," the scientist said.
The thickness of the film imitating natural enamel is only 0.004 millimeters. It was created in a vacuum by directing a laser beam at hydroxyapatite crystals, as a result of which they diverged into individual particles. These particles fell on heated salt crystals, which were then picked up with filter paper and dried. This was how the film turned out, which could be lifted with tweezers.
(Photo from the Kinki University website – VM.)
"At the moment when you apply the film to the tooth, it is invisible, it can only be seen under the light," explained Professor Hontsu. There are pores on the film through which liquid and air can escape so that bubbles do not form on the surface of the tooth under the film. The only problem with such a coating, according to the scientist, is that it takes a whole day.
Currently, the hydroxyapatite elastic film is colorless, but it can be colored for use in cosmetic dentistry. Artificial tooth enamel as a coating has been tested on removed teeth, but soon tests will begin on animals, and then on humans, and, according to Hontsu, first of all, on the creators of the new material themselves.
According to scientists, it will take at least five years before it can be used to cover dentin – the sensitive tissue of the tooth under the enamel. In aesthetic dentistry, artificial enamel that can give teeth a white color can be used in three years.
The technology developed by Hontsu together with Kazushi Yoshikawa from Osaka Dental University has been patented in Japan and South Korea, and patent applications are being prepared in the USA, Europe and China.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru20.09.2012