Regenerative dental filling project wins award

UK researchers have developed innovative new regenerative dental fillings that could potentially revolutionise oral healthcare.

Created by researchers from the University of Nottingham and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, the therapeutic synthetic, light-curable biomaterials for dental treatments are designed to support native dental stem cells inside teeth to repair and regenerate dentin.

They can be used similarly to dental fillings, but are designed to be placed in direct contact with pulp tissue to stimulate the native stem cell population for regeneration, whereas existing fillings are toxic to cells and incompatible with pulp tissue inside the tooth.

Recognising the promise this research offers, the project has won second prize in the materials category of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Emerging Technologies Competition for 2016.

As a result, the researchers have been given an injection of funding to take their work on to the next stage.

Dr Adam Celiz, Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Nottingham, said: "Our approach has great promise to impact the dental field and this prize provides a great platform to develop this technology further with industrial partners."