Technology
The nano advantage
Nano technology seems to be creeping into more of the products you use, but does it live up to the hype surrounding its name?
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By Renee Knight
You might not know exactly what it means, but you know you want it. The word nano seems to make products more attractive these days, and it’s a word that’s starting to show up more often in the dental industry.
Implant surfaces. Light-cured resin materials. Light-cured glass ionomer restoratives. Even tissue re-generation. These are all areas that nano technology touches today, and areas that this science is expected to continue to improve.
Nano technology makes it possible to work at the molecular level, atom by atom, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Web site (www.nidcr.nih.gov). This gives scientists the ability to create large structures with what is basically a new, much smaller molecular organization— which leads to the benefits seen in many of the nano products on the market. To put it in terms of numbers, 1 nano meter is equal to one billionth of a meter.
Manufacturers are looking to this technology for enhanced esthetics, improved abrasion resistance, better implant-to-bone contact, and a host of other benefits found in products that are making their way into more practices. Here’s a look at some of the offerings on the market today, their benefits, how you can incorporate them into your practice, and how the technology works.
IMPLANTS
Smooth surfaces
The ability to bone bond, or the interlocking of the newly formed cement line matrix of bone with the implant surface, is essential to successful implant placement, Dr. Alan Meltzer says, and surfaces like the one found on the NanoTite implant from Biomet 3i (link to www.3i-online.com) make the transition from mechanical to biologic stability a smooth one.
“The patient realizes ‘wow, you were able to extract my tooth, put in the implant and put a tooth on my implant that day,’” Meltzer says, who’s practice is based in New Jersey “They walked in with a failing tooth and walked out with a fixed restoration the same day. That’s huge.”
Meltzer, who was involved in the implant’s clinical trials, has used NanoTite for more than two years, and says it’s the only implant he places in his practice. Not only does it give him increased confidence in outcomes with typical patients, it also enables him to treat the more challenging cases that involve limited or poor bone quality.
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