Scientists Use Neutrons to Develop Better, Less Costly Dental Restorations
Fernando Luis Esteban Florez, DDS, PhD, MS, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Dentistry, is performing neutron scattering research to study the effectiveness of new dental restoratives.
Tennessee.OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY – OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY, PUBLIC DOMAIN
Fernando Luis Esteban Florez, DDS, PhD, MS, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Dentistry, is performing neutron scattering research to study the effectiveness of new dental restoratives. The focus of the project is to create better and less costly biomaterials that will bond more tightly with tooth structure, while also repelling pathogens that threaten restorations and implants.
Building on past research, Florez is using the high flux isotope reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study human teeth that have been restored with amalgam or composite to determine how restorative materials interact with enamel, dentin and collagen.
The materials were bound to the sample tooth structures using experimental dental adhesive resins that contain varying concentrations of metal oxide nanoparticles. The data is being reconstructed into three-dimensional renderings to allow Florez to observe interactions between the restorative biomaterials and teeth.
From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. April 2020;18(4):12.
