New restorative material seeks to replace amalgam

Kent Coulter, Ph.D., and colleagues from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX, have developed a new proof-of-concept dental restorative material that seeks to replace amalgam and other materials.

Developed under a program funded by the National Institutes of Health, the new plastic-like material contains zirconia nanoplatelets -- tiny crystals made of the same sort of material used to make fake diamonds and gem stones. Unlike their costume jewelry cousins, however, the zirconia nanoplatelets are extremely hard because of a difference in the arrangements of the atoms in the material, the researchers said in a press release.

Coulter and his colleagues designed a way to make a roll of this material under vacuum. They envision that it would be lifted from the roll and packed in a dental cavity and then cured -- using an ultraviolet lamp or some other means -- so that it hardens in place without shrinking. Its use is still several years away from the dentist's chair, however, and the next steps will be first to see if the new material performs as hoped for in a clinical setting.

Coulter and his colleagues will describe the material this week at a meeting of the scientific society AVS in San Jose, CA.