Houghton researchers build better dental implants

A mechanical engineering professor at Michigan Tech in Houghton wants to use nanotechnology to create a better dental implant.

Dental implants are posts that are surgically installed into the jawbone and connected to artificial teeth to replace decayed or missing teeth, and look like natural teeth. But as with any surgery, especially in the mouth, infection is the main risk with dental implants. Sometimes they fail, or fall out, or have to be removed.

Tolou Shokuhfar is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and says she may have a way to keep that from happening. She’s been working with Cortino Sukotjo, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry to use titanium dioxide nanotubes on the surface of dental implants. The nanomaterial has the potential to battle infection, improve healing, and help the implant last longer.

“We have done toxicity tests on the nanotubes, and not only did they not kill cells, they encouraged growth,” Shokuhfar says. She has already demonstrated bone cells grow faster and adhere better to titanium coated with the nanotubes than to conventional titanium surfaces, which could keep more dental implants in place.

There are even more possibilities, like using the nanotubes as a drug delivery system for sodium naproxen, an anti-inflammatory, or for silver, which is antimicrobial. Shokuhfar is exploring those ideas with other researchers at Michigan Tech and UIC. Currently, she is working under a provisional patent for the nanotubular surface, but plans eventually to develop and license the technology.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Michigan Technological University