New Antibacterial Implant Is In Development
- Details
- Published: Tuesday, 21 September 2021 07:51
- Written by Chris Tapper
- Hits: 1876
Research is in progress to develop a ‘smart’ dental implant that resists bacterial growth and generates its own electricity to power a light that can rejuvenate tissues.
Professor Geelsu Hwang is the research team’s leader at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine. He has a background in engineering which he has applied to oral health issues.
The researchers hope to reduce the failure rate of implants, often caused by local inflammation or gum disease.
“We wanted to address this issue, and so we came up with an innovative new implant,” Professor Hwang told the Penn University website said.
“The novel implant would implement two key technologies,” Hwang says.
“One is a nanoparticle-infused material that resists bacterial colonization. And the second is an embedded light source to conduct phototherapy, powered by the natural motions of the mouth, such as chewing or toothbrushing.”
Professor Hwang said “Phototherapy can address a diverse set of health issues.”
“But once a biomaterial is implanted, it’s not practical to replace or recharge a battery. We are using a piezoelectric material, which can generate electrical power from natural oral motions to supply a light that can conduct phototherapy, and we find that it can successfully protect gingival tissue from bacterial challenge.”
The material the researchers explored was barium titanate (BTO). BTO has piezoelectric properties that are used in applications such as capacitators and transistors.
The material has not yet been explored as a foundation for anti-infectious implantable biomaterials.
The Penn website said “To test its potential as the foundation for a dental implant, the team first used discs embedded with nanoparticles of BTO and exposed them to Streptococcus mutans, a primary component of the bacterial biofilm responsible for tooth decay commonly known as dental plaque.”
“They found that the discs resisted biofilm formation in a dose-dependent manner. Discs with higher concentrations of BTO were better at preventing biofilms from binding.”
“While earlier studies had suggested that BTO might kill bacteria outright using reactive oxygen species generated by light-catalyzed or electric polarization reactions, Hwang and colleagues did not find this to be the case due to the short-lived efficacy and off-target effects of these approaches.”
“Instead, the material generates enhanced negative surface charge that repels the negatively charged cell walls of bacteria. It’s likely that this repulsion effect would be long-lasting, the researchers say.”
“We wanted an implant material that could resist bacterial growth for a long time because bacterial challenges are not a one-time threat,” Hwang told the university website.
“The power-generating property of the material was sustained and in tests over time the material did not leach. It also demonstrated a level of mechanical strength comparable to other materials used in dental applications.”
“Finally, the material did not harm normal gingival tissue in the researchers’ experiments, supporting the idea that this could be used without ill effect in the mouth.”
The team hopes to continue to refine the “smart” dental implant system, testing new material types.
“We hope to further develop the implant system and eventually see it commercialized so it can be used in the dental field,” Professor Hwang says.
The team’s paper, published on ACS Publications, can be found here.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report