Nanodiamonds Reduce Infection After Root Canal Treatment

Highlights

Nanodiamond-embedded gutta percha protects disinfected root canals from bacterial infection.
Nanodiamonds are tiny particles made of carbon and are used to deliver drugs and imaging agents.
Gutta percha is used to block bacteria from infiltrating the tooth but it can break during the procedure.

People who undergo root canal treatment may soon have a method that could prevent infection after treatment.

Nanodiamonds protected disinfected root canals after the nerve and pulp were removed, thereby improving the likelihood of a full recovery, according to a research team at the UCLA School of Dentistry and the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science .

Root Canal Treatment | Endodontic therapy
Root canal treatment is to save a badly infected tooth. The dentist call it endodontic therapy and they deep clean the infected root of the tooth.

‘Combining nanodiamonds with gutta percha, a material used to fill disinfected root canals, may enhance the protective properties.’

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Nanodiamonds For Drug Delivery

Nanodiamonds are tiny particles made of carbon and are so small that millions of them could fit on the head of a pin. They resemble soccer balls but have facets like actual diamonds. Those facets enable the nanodiamonds to deliver a wide range of drugs and imaging agents.

Combining nanodiamonds with gutta percha, a material used to fill disinfected root canals, may enhance the gutta percha's protective properties.

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"Harnessing the unique properties of nanodiamonds in the clinic may help scientists, doctors and dentists overcome key challenges that confront several areas of health care, including improving lesion healing in oral health," said Dean Ho, professor of oral biology and medicine in the dental school and a co-corresponding author of the study.

Nanodiamonds Prevent Infection after Root Canal

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Protecting disinfected root canals is a delicate process. Dentists use gutta percha to block bacteria from infiltrating the tooth, but it can break during the procedure or create pockets of space for bacteria to infiltrate, which leads to infection.

The researchers tested nanodiamond-embedded gutta percha, or NDGP, in three people who were undergoing root canal procedures. Tests of the implanted material confirmed that the NDGP was more resistant to buckling and breaking than conventional gutta percha.

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All three patients healed properly, without unusual pain and without infection. "This trial confirms the immense promise of using nanodiamonds to overcome barriers for a range of procedures, from particularly challenging endodontics cases to orthopedics, tissue engineering, and others," said co-corresponding author Dr. Mo Kang, UCLA Dentistry's Jack Weichman Professor of Endodontics.

Using NDGP for the procedures did not require changes to any of the standard procedures for root canals, said Dr. Eric Sung, the paper's co-corresponding author and a UCLA professor of clinical dentistry and the United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles Professor of Special Patient Care.

Ho, one of the world's leading researchers on the medical use of nanodiamonds, has collaborated with oncologists, cancer biologists, mechanical engineers, materials scientists, chemists and others over the past 10 years to explore how nanodiamonds could be used in oral health, cancer treatment, regenerative medicine and antimicrobial applications, among other areas.

"We believe nanodiamonds could ultimately help us sidestep drug resistance in cancer, improve the efficiency of magnetic resonance imaging and address other clinical challenges," said Ho.

Reference

Dong-Keun Leea,Theodore Keec, Zhangrui Liang, Desiree Hsioua, Darron Miya, Brian Wua, Eiji Osawa, Edward Kai-Hua Chow, Eric C. Sung, Mo K. Kang and Dean Ho. Clinical validation of a nanodiamond-embedded thermoplastic biomaterial, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1711924114.

Source-Medindia