A team of chemical and structural engineers has invented a new material that mimics enamel’s fundamental properties: It is strong and—very importantly—also slightly elastic.
Enamel, the tough outer covering of a tooth, is the hardest substance in the human body. It is also notoriously difficult to replicate artificially. Throughout history, dentists have repaired damaged and decayed teeth with everything from beeswax to mercury composites to modern ceramic- or resin-based materials. But they might soon have a synthetic option that is much closer to the real thing.
Natural enamel has the difficult job of protecting teeth, which are constantly being strained by oral bacteria, acidic foods, chewing and even speaking. Over time, the wear and tear adds up. “You carry the same set of teeth for 60 years, or maybe even more,” says Nicholas Kotov, a chemical engineer at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study. “So it’s an enormous chemical and mechanical stress.” And unlike bone, enamel cannot be regenerated by the human body.
“Imagine a pack of pencils when you hold them together,” says Janet Moradian-Oldak, a biochemist at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the research. This arrangement allows the rods to compress slightly under pressure, rather than shattering, while also keeping the overall structure extremely strong. The artificial enamel mimics this configuration, bundling calcium phosphate rods together with flexible polymer chains.
The material may not be a perfect tooth analogue, however. “I don’t see much answered in the paper to mimic the 3-D structure of human enamel,” says Thomas Diekwisch, a craniofacial researcher at Texas A&M University, who was not involved in the new study. But, he notes, that doesn’t mean it won’t be useful. “At least for functional biomimicry, you don’t have to exactly reproduce what nature does.
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