New Advancements in Restorative Materials

This has been an impressive year especially for the field of dental research with new developments, discoveries and manipulations seemingly emerging every day.  Dental materials are fabricated materials, designed for use in dentistry.  By altering the initiation system, monomers, and fillers and their coupling agents, and by developing novel polymerization strategies, dental materials have been the essential of a great deal of research with the goal of improving restoration performance.   There are many different types of dental restorative materials, and their characteristics vary according to their intended purpose.    

Dental materials may be classified as

1.     Preventive materials

2.     Restorative materials

3.     Auxiliary materials

      With hundreds of millions of restorations performed each year, continuing research into practical advances and successful clinical implementation of composite restoratives are critical to oral care, aesthetics, and functional restoration. Materials such as glass–ionomers, resin ionomers, resin ionomers products, and improved resin-based composite systems have been developed which are having profound impact on the restoration of primary teeth

Dental materials and discovery of their specific applications in practice. A wide range of materials is necessary for current restorative practice, including metals and alloys, plastics, ceramics and various combinations of substance. For each type of material, it is necessary to evaluate the tissue reaction it will evoke, its physical and mechanical characteristics and the influence of variation in manipulation, in order to estimate its serviceability in practice.

Recent developments:

·         Dust free alginates

·         Siliconised alginates

·         Low dust alginates impression material

·         Antiseptic alginate impression material

·         CAVEX Color change

·         Highly Filled Flowable Resins

·         Dentin Replacements

·         Nanotechnology Composite Resins

·         Pit and fissure sealants

It has long been a goal of clinical and materials science to improve the direct resin dental restorative process. With advances in dental research, newer dental materials have made their way into the dental market. Each newer restorative material introduced has its set of benefits and shortcomings.