Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 11
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1
New treatment opportunities in nanodentistry [7]
Treatments
Comments
1 Tooth repair
Nanodental techniques for major tooth
repair may evolve through several stages of
technological development, irst using genetic
engineering, tissue engineering and tissue
regeneration and later growing whole new teeth
in vitro
and installing them.
2 Tooth
renaturalization
Dentition renaturalization procedures may
become a popular addition to the typical dental
practice, providing perfect methods for esthetic
dentistry. This trend may begin with patients
who desire to have their old dental amalgams
excavated and their teeth remanufactured
with native biological materials. But demand
will grow for full coronal renaturalizations in
which all illings, crowns, and other necessary
20th century modiications to the visible
dentition are removed, with the affected teeth
remanufactured so as to be indistinguishable
from the natural originals.
3 Hypersensitivity
cure
Dentin hypersensitivity may be caused by chan-
ges in pressure transmitted hydrodynamically
to the pulp. This etiology is suggested by the
inding that hypersensitive teeth have 8 times
higher surface density of dentinal tubules - and
tubules with diameters twice as large - than
nonsensitive teeth. There are many therapeutic
agents for this common painful condition that
provide temporary relief, but reconstructive
dental nanorobots could selectively and
precisely occlude selected tubules in minutes,
using native biological materials, offering
patients a quick and permanent cure.
4 Orthodontic
nanorobots
Orthodontic nanorobots could directly
manipulate the periodontal tissues including
gingiva, periodontal ligament, cementum and
alveolar bone, allowing rapid painless tooth
straightening, rotating, and vertical repositioning
in minutes to hours, in contrast to current molar
uprighting techniques which require weeks or
months to proceed to completion.
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