Smart Materials for Dental Applications and Implants

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, both evolutionary and revolutionary trends in the field of dental materials science have been noted. Of these, the emphasis has been on the progress of smart materials used in disposable medical supplies, dental materials, implants, dressings, or oral drug delivery systems. Among such advanced systems, the smart polymeric materials present some advantages as the ease of handling and the realization of various shapes (film, sheet, fibers, etc.), easy to process, the relatively low cost compared to the desired physical and mechanical properties. By analogy with the biological sciences, smart systems can meet  functions of activators, sensors, or control, and then could incorporate a “learning function". Thus, the smart material can detect changes in the environment and modify its own characteristics so as to control the variations that have generated this change. Consequently, the notions of "passive" (which allows only the reaction to the environment) and "active " (which reacts discreetly to external pH, moisture,  mechanical, thermal, or electrical constraints, adjusting its characteristics through a feedback system) were associated with the smart materials. Extended research of the domain reflects that in dentistry is preferred an “active” rather than “passive” biomaterial, although the bio-responsiveness depends on their interaction with the oral environment. In the meantime, the antibacterial self-healing dental nanocomposites whose “strategic” actions are bioinspired represent  the smart materials able to assure an extended life for dental restorations. No matter how the smart materials act in dentistry, passive or active, they are used in preventive or prosthetic dentistry, restorative activity, and in periodontal disease. The complexity of obtaining, functioning, and applying intelligent materials in dentistry involves the harmonious combination of knowledge and co-operation of specialists working in the most varied fields: materials science, analytics, complex material characterization, dental studies, in vitro and in vivo clinical determinations, microbiology, machine learning. This Special Issue aims to bring in front original works and studies on identifying novel dental smart materials  and on developing and applying novel experimental and computational methods for understanding their dynamics, functional mechanisms,  and interactions with the oral environment, as well as review papers on dental smart materials. The Special Issue is focused on the used of the smart materials in all fields of dentistry.

Prof. Dr. Eugenia Eftimie Totu
Dr. Corina Marilena Cristache
Guest Editors

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