National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Oral Biodevices

Realistically, the translation of truly regenerative treatments to clinical practice is likely a longer term goal, so the need for improved reparative/restorative materials is undeniable. Simple examples are direct dental restorations and root canal obturations. A lot of money and further damage to native tissues would be saved if we could come up with better materials. Also, since these materials reside in the oral cavity,... more »

Real-time monitoring of dental caries using genetically engineered bioluminescent cariogenic bacteria and living imaging software to analysis and 3D reconstruction of caries map in oral cavity.

Develop an oral biodevice that can monitor and allow for precise dosing of medications . There are significant variations in how individuals metabolize drugs, influenced by genetics, epigenetics, diet, and other prescription medications. Coordinating this monitoring device with an automated delivery system or a mobile device notification system would also help with medication compliance, and reduce complications caused... more »

Inter-proximal decays are currently mainly treated with surgical method with dental burs. Current remineratlization methods are not effective enough for inter-proximal surfaces and therefore not practical as routine use for dental offices. Most initial proximal decays end up watch and then surgical restoration.
My idea is developing a delivery system to maintain high concentration of remineraliztion materials on... more »

Deep learning technology has made dramatic advances in the last few years. These artificially intelligent systems can be trained using rich and abundant data sets to facilitate highly accurate diagnostics. Deep learning AI can now do as good if not better job of deciphering diagnostic images such as MRIs than experienced and trained clinicians. Imagine a Deep Learning AI system that could be sent a smartphone picture... more »

Development of high-quality dental biomaterials will require complex systems that can simultaneously measure and integrate multiple evaluation systems for quantitative and predictive determination of safety and effectiveness. Combined with bench and in vivo studies, integrated, data-driven computational frameworks will accelerate development of high-quality dental biomaterials by providing critical insights to optimize... more »

There are two types of dental implant for two pieces implant: bone level and tissue level implant. Both have micro gap "inside body" initiating inflammation all the time. There are many ways in "dealing with" the problem, like platform switch design. The ideal and final solution is completely "avoid/prevent the problem" by making the micro gap "outside body"
The ideal dental implant should be, and will be the BeyondTissueLevel... more »