New research by Salvatore Sauro, who is a professor of dental biomaterials, has shown that new dental biomaterials can help regenerate dental hard tissues. The work occurred at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, in Spain, with collaboration of researchers from other parts of Europe.
Bacterial plaque which causes tooth decay due to acids produced by different bacteria species; has led to research for the development of restorative biomaterials. The international group of researchers generated two new dental restorative biomaterials containing bioactive glasses, and explored their effectiveness in reducing the enzymatic auto-degradation of collagen fibres and evoking their remineralization.
The researchers set out to evaluate the inhibition of endogenous proteolytic enzymes of dentin and the remineralization induced by two experimental resins containing bioactive glasses. The first resin contains micro-particles of Bioglass 45S5 and the other one contains micro-particles of an experimental bioactive glass enriched with fluoride and high amount of phosphates. The anti-degradation effects were evaluated on completely demineralized human dentin specimens after they were immersed in artificial saliva 30 days using an immunohistochemical process. The remineralization evoked by the experimental bioactive resins was further evaluated using infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
The resin-based material containing the experimental bioactive glass enriched with fluoride and phosphates was found to be more efficient in inhibiting the enzymatic-mediated degradation of demineralized dentine collagen, and more bioactive than the one containing Bioglass 45S5. This mostly because of fluoride ions and also the large amount of phosphates released which accelerated dentin remineralization and reduced the degradation of demineralized dentin collagen via inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases and cysteine cathepsins.
The researchers believe that this experimental bioactive material would be suitable for the development of new restorative dental materials for the clinical treatment of the dental caries or cavities.
Source: A. Tezvergil-Mutluay and et al., Effects of Composites Containing Bioactive Glasses on Demineralized Dentin, Journal of Dental Research, 2017.