Project Details
Description
With an annual growth of 500,000, more than 3 million people in US have received dental implants. In the well-established practice, metallic dental implants, the artificial tooth roots, are directly screwed into the jawbone to support the restorations that resemble a tooth or a group of teeth to replace the missing ones. Because of its superior corrosion resistance, biocompatibility and osseointegration, commercially pure titanium (Ti) or Ti alloy is mainly used for current dental implants. With proper modifications of the implant surface, a high success rate (90-95%) has been achieved to form the initial connection between bone and implant surface, important to keep the implant in place. However, this connection is not permanent and often fails due to the degradation of surrounding bone and the development of bone cracks as a result of the lack of mechanism to absorb the shock. Clearly, there is a great need to improve the dental implants that can yield better and long-lasting bone integration and keep the surrounding bone healthy. In this regard, this I-Corps team proposes a novel design of Ti alloy dental implants, that will not only yield a better integration with surrounding bone but also encourage the regeneration of vascular and nerve networks to vitalize the bone with sensing capability. This design will serve as a great bridge between pure metallic implants and the future biological tooth by forming the desired tissue/metal hybrid structure.
The team's long-term goal is to develop next-generation dental implants that have the capability of facilitating the recruitment of dental progenitor cells into the implant and stimulating the formation of bone and periodontal tissue in the implants. The immediate goal for this I-Corps Teams project is to identify the unmet clinical needs with current dental implants and understand the potentials of the proposed new segmented-implants that are capable of improving tissue ingrowth throughout the implants with better fixation. To address this, the team's efforts are to: (1) better understand the unmet clinical needs in dental implantation and evaluate the potentials of segmented implants with better tissue fixation and prolonged life, and (2) optimize the fabrication procedures and develop the prototype of novel Ti alloy based-dental implants. It is anticipated that this innovative design of next-generation dental implants can greatly satisfy the clinical need with a large market segment. Meanwhile, this design can also be similarly applied to orthopedic and transcutaneous implants.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 1/06/16 → 31/05/17 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation