Development of fatigue-resistant and self-healing composites

Dental composites are nowadays widely used and are made of an acrylic resin matrix reinforced with glass filler microparticles. Unfortunately, due to the formation of microcracks approximately 25% of the replacements are caused by fracture of the restoration. The development of novel self-healing and fatigue-resistant composite restorations with the capacity to repair cracks in situ for extended periods of time would overcome the main shortcoming of the current generation of dental composites.