http://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials/special_issues/dental-materials/ Dear Colleagues, Dental research has been transitioning gradually from the classical Restorative Dentistry to Regenerative Dentistry. Regeneration of a functional tooth is a promising strategy for replacing an irreversibly diseased tooth. Pulp-like tissue can now be regenerated in root canal space by stem cells and give rise to odontoblast-like cells producing dentin-like tissue. Three-dimensional porous scaffolds made of mineralized type I collagen mimic the composition of extracellular matrix ofbone and can therefore have the potential of being used as a biomimetic graft material. Additionally, the role of RNA interference (RNAi) and RNA activation (RNAa) may prove to be crucial to treat or prevent dental anomalies and periodontal disease. The role of metalloproteinases (or MMP’s) inhibitors in preventing the degradation of dentinal collagen fibers has been recently highlighted in dentin adhesion. Other promising areas of research in dental adhesion are the application of colloidal platinum nanoparticles, and guided tissue mineralization to re-mineralize areas etched by phosphoric acid but not infiltrated by the adhesive. Some of the dental materials recently introduced - low-shrinkage resin composites and Y-TZP-based fixed prostheses - have changed some of the classical concepts of clinical dentistry. For the first time in 40 years, dentists are using a non-BisGMA resin composite. Shrinkage stresses are reduced with the new silorane-based resin composites. The relevance of using low- or no-shrinking composite materials is that internal stresses occur during the polymerization of all dental composites due to a volumetric contraction. These shrinkage stresses may cause interfacial failures between the restoration and the tooth structure. Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) and titanium implants have been increasingly used in Dentistry. Y-TZP is used as the infrastructure for crowns, bridges and implant abutments. Research in Clinical Orthopedics has shown that Y-TZP used in hip arthroplasties may undergo transformation under mechanical and/or hydrothermal stress, with degradation of mechanical and tribologic properties. It is not known if these alterations also occur in Y-TZP dental restorations. Prof. Dr. Jorge Perdigão Guest Editor Related Special Issue Dental Materials in International Journal of Molecular Sciences {snippet name="submission_info"} http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/3/3/1674/ Nanotechnologies are predicted to revolutionize: (a) the control over materials properties at ultrafine scales; and (b) the sensitivity of tools and devices applied in various scientific and technological fields. In this short review, we argue that dentistry will be no exception to this trend. Here, we present a dynamic view of dental tissues, an adoption of which may lead to finer, more effective and minimally invasive reparation approaches. By doing so, we aim at providing insights into some of the breakthroughs relevant to understanding the genesis of dental tissues at the nanostructural level or generating dental materials with nanoscale critical boundaries. The lineage of the progress of dental science, including the projected path along the presumed nanotechnological direction of research and clinical application is mentioned too. We conclude by claiming that dentistry should follow the trend of probing matter at nanoscale that currently dominates both materials and biological sciences in order to improve on the research strategies and clinical techniques that have traditionally rested on mechanistic assumptions. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/3/3/1674/ Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 CET Materials 2010-03-08 3 3 Review 1674 1691 1996-1944 Nanotechnology in Dental Sciences: Moving towards a Finer Way of Doing Dentistry 2010-03-08 doi: 10.3390/ma3031674 Vuk Uskoković Luiz Eduardo Bertassoni