Canadian scientists have created “eternal” fillings for teeth

Canadian chemists have created a new type of seal that protects teeth from microbial attacks due to the nanoparticles of antibiotics built into them, according to an article published in the journal Nature Communications.

“The nanoparticles stuffed with antibiotics make the seal the first line of defense against the microbes that cause caries.” Usually, these fillers used to work only a couple of weeks, and we managed to find a combination of drugs and silicon nanoparticles that will last for teeth protection for many years, – says Ben Hatton (Ben Hatton) from the University of Toronto (Canada).
As scientists explain, even with observance of all technological procedures on the boundary of the filling, a micro-gap is formed over time, in which microorganisms actively multiply. In addition, tooth tissues and seal material differently repel water, which also creates problems when installing the seal and its further service.
In recent years, scientists, according to Hatton, have come to the conclusion that this problem can be solved if the filling of the filling with antibiotics and other substances, upon contact with which the bacteria are destroyed. The first experiments confirmed that this idea works well, but the scientists faced an extremely difficult task – it turned out that antibiotics are quickly washed out of the filling and it remains protected for a very short time.
As scientists explain, this is due to the process of manufacturing nanoparticles. As a rule, these are hollow or porous spheres of silicon and other chemically inert substances that are filled with drugs. In most cases, antibiotics remain only on the surface, and within the nanoparticle their total mass is always very small.
Canadian chemists have tried to eliminate this deficiency by developing a technology in which antibiotic molecules enter the pores of nanoparticles directly during assembly. This allowed to increase the proportion of antibiotic by about 50 times and sharply to reduce the rate of “escape” of molecules from the surface of the granules.
As the first experiments showed, such nanoparticles continued to kill streptococcus causing caries and many other microbes even two years after the filling was made, which indicates that they can protect their teeth throughout almost the entire life of their carrier.
It is interesting that scientists from Russian NITU “MISiS” created similar seals and checked them in one of the Moscow dental clinics. Unlike foreign colleagues, Russian chemists have applied nanoparticles not from antibiotics, but from metals, which makes them potentially more durable.