XIX National Congress and VI International of the Spanish Society of Conservative Dentistry

17-19, May 2012

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Meeting Abstract

Sponsors: Sociedad Española de Odontología Conservadora (SEOC)

- Oral Presentation 2

TITLE: Absorption of silver clusters and Nanoparticles by dentin.

AUTHORS

Rivas Mundiña, B¹

Varela Patiño, P¹

Calvo Fuentes, J²

López Quintela, MA³

Rivas, J⁴

1.- Unidad de Patología y Terapéutica Dental II. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

2.- NANOGAP sub-nm-powder S.A.

3.- Grupo de Magnetismo y Nanotecnología. Departamento de Química Física. Universidad de Santiago de Compos-tela

4.-INL, Braga. Portugal

SOURCE: Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2012 August 1;17(Supplement2):S2.

* doi:10.4317/medoral.17643786

http://dx.doi.org/10.4317/medoral.17643786

ABSTRACT

Nanoscale materials often show very different properties from those exhibited at the macroscale, enabling new applications, often unexpected, that are not possible with bulk materials. Nanoparticles (2-100 nm) and clusters (0.5-2 nm), have multiple applications in diverse fields as optics, engineering, electronics, nanomedicine, and of course in dentistry. Nanotechnology is already being applied successfully in dentistry through the use of nanocomposite materials such as adhesives, cements and resins.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the absorption of silver clusters and nanoparticles by human dentin. The experiments were performed on extracted teeth, which were submerged in solutions with well defined concentrations of these clusters and nanoparticles. After immersion of the teeth, optical absorbances of the respective solutions were periodically measured to assess whether the clusters and / or nanoparticles were effectively absorbed by the dentin.

The experimental results clearly showed that the absorbances of the solutions decrease with time passed after the immersion of the teeth, indicating an actual absorption of the silver clusters by dentin. In the absorbance experiments performed, it seems that although a large amount of clusters is absorbed by the dentin in each experiment, the absorption is not complete, leaving part of the silver in the solution.

By contrast, in similar experiments performed with nanoparticles, results show unequivocally that the nanoparticles are not absorbed by the dentin, being the optical absorbance of the solutions in which teeth were submerged constant with time.

KEYWORDS

Nanoparticles, clusters, absorption, dentin.