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Graphene Shows Promise For Super Strong Dental Fillings (elsevier.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the in-your-teeth-and-your-space-elevators dept.

Zothecula writes: A team of researchers from four institutions located in Romania and St. Kitts have worked together to determine whether graphene could be used to create more durable dental materials. They worked to test how toxic (abstract) different forms of the material were to teeth, with promising results. "Typical metal fillings can corrode and composite fillings are not very strong; Graphene, on the other hand, is 200 times stronger than steel and doesn't corrode, making it a prime new candidate for dental fillings."

44 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Black Teeth Is The New Fad by zenlessyank · · Score: 2

    Vamps and Goths will love these.

    1. Re:Black Teeth Is The New Fad by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I have both gold and ceramic caps; dentist said gold is better in general since ceramic is so hard that it wears the opposite tooth, but most people don't want a gold front tooth.

      I'd worry about not only the difficulty of putting in a super hard filling material, but how hard it would wear down the opposite tooth.

      --
      Infuriate left and right
    2. Re:Black Teeth Is The New Fad by Mike+Frett · · Score: 1

      It's only as strong as the Glue that holds it in...

  2. How the mighty have fallen? by Jfetjunky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once graphene had dreams of being the next wonder material. "Better transistors! Stronger than steel!" they sang. But now... Dental fillings.

    1. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      I thought we were supposed to be building space elevators with graphene.

      So what's the plan now . . . we pull people up into space by their teeth . . . ?

      --
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    2. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I watched an hour-long, older, documentary not long ago. I think it might have been Horizon or Nova? Something about getting tech smaller. Anyhow, in that show they had a guy that made graphene using naught but scotch tape and a pencil. They even showed it to us under a microscope afterwards. (I watch too many documentaries, it might have been pre-made stuff that they showed.) It was kind of neat and you just keep using the tape to move it out over a larger and larger surface area until no more transfers.

      Also, my brother's wife deals with an amalgam study (does grants and data compilation and travels a lot) with the mercury in the fillings thing. I'm not sure if it was mercury of if it was a different substance that she was working on and one that came after mercury but it had something to do with mercury, at any rate. I wonder if she's familiar with this? She might be, she's tasked with keeping up on this sort of thing. Well, that's my understanding. Meh...

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    3. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

      I thought we were supposed to be building space elevators with graphene.

      So what's the plan now . . . we pull people up into space by their teeth . . . ?

      SPLENDID idea. Lets start with lawyers, then politicians, then CxOs, then bankers followed by carsalesdipwads sniffing up their rears.

      --
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    4. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by Shoten · · Score: 2

      Once graphene had dreams of being the next wonder material. "Better transistors! Stronger than steel!" they sang. But now... Dental fillings.

      I'm just tired of hearing all the incredible applications for a material that nobody's figured out how to mass-produce economically yet.

      At this point, they may as well be singing the praises of tooth fillings made out of unicorn cum.

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    5. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "I'm just tired of hearing all the incredible applications for a material that nobody's figured out how to mass-produce economically yet."

      Relax. Dentists are not going to use it anyway, because it would cannibalize their future business. Better to put in fillings that rot out and need to be redrilled every few years.

    6. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by mikael · · Score: 1

      Amalgam fillings are a mix of mercury and silver, tin and copper. More or less the same stuff as the solder put on circuit boards.

      http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevi...

      That was replaced by plastic or acrylic fillings which are hardened using UV light, but get soft due to exposure with alcohol.

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    7. Re:How the mighty have fallen? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of carbon nanotubes. Graphene is flat sheets of carbon, not tubes.

  3. "making it a prime new candidate for dental fillin by Nutria · · Score: 1

    Not so much, until "they" start making consistent batches it on an industrial scale.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  4. Probably too strong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You want dental filling strength to *match* the strength of the tooth around it, not be stronger, otherwise after a few years the fillings will stick out.

    1. Re:Probably too strong by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      You want dental filling strength to *match* the strength of the tooth around it, not be stronger, otherwise after a few years the fillings will stick out.

      Now all your teeth are belong to graphene!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    2. Re: Probably too strong by ledow · · Score: 2

      Really? What's the temperature range of your mouth?

      I doubt ANY material you've heard of expands enough over a typical tooth temperature range to really make it an issue.

    3. Re:Probably too strong by Zocalo · · Score: 1

      From painful experience it's not just about the tensile strength, the difference in thermal expansion/contraction rate matters as well. Going from snow covered mountain peaks at -10C to a desert with +40C temperatures in just a few hours was sufficient to cause a large filling in one of my molars to expand sufficiently faster than the tooth it was in to cause the tooth to shatter. Net result: one crown, two other fillings of the same amalgam replaced just in case, and quite a large bill.

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    4. Re: Probably too strong by amRadioHed · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you're eating ice cream and hot coffee that's a 200F range, although the exposure times aren't very long, so no idea how much the teeth heat and cool by.

      --
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    5. Re:Probably too strong by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

      I think someone mislead you. The temperature inside your mouth doesn't swing that significantly with outside temperature, unless you're dead.

      You'd get a much bigger swing, as someone else said, going from ice cream to coffee -- or from ice cream to anything, since ice cream's temperature can be close to -10C, and your body temperature is close enough to 40C.

    6. Re:Probably too strong by hawkinspeter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Are you sure that was due to thermal expansion and not having an air pocket that expanded due to pressure differences? I know you get issues with air pockets and fillings when diving so it might be possible to get the same going from a mountain top to sea level.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    7. Re:Probably too strong by Zocalo · · Score: 1

      The temperature inside your mouth doesn't swing that significantly with outside temperature, unless you're dead.

      True, but as I was doing quite a bit of physical exertion and would have been breathing pretty hard orally the assumption was that the air passing around my teeth would have pushed the temperature much closer to the external ambient rather than normal body temp for a prolonged period of time - and that "prolonged" is probably the key regarding the ice cream scenario. I got the same theory from both the local dentist that did an emergency repair on the molar and my own dentist when I got back to the UK; most likely a significant change in temperature combined with the expansion of the original amalgam. My dental insurance presumably agreed with it too, since they didn't contest the claim for the replacement of two otherwise perfectly good fillings.

      Are you sure that was due to thermal expansion and not having an air pocket that expanded due to pressure differences?

      That was quite possibly a contributing factor, but hard to tell since most of the tooth and filling were in pieces. :) As an additional data point, since I had the amalgam in all my fillings replaced with the more expensive formulation all of the sensitivity issues I was having with very cold foods like ice cream, have simply stopped. I'm inclined to think that sensitivity might be caused by the expansion difference, but for it to actually crack the tooth is almost certainly going to take some combination of circumstances like an air pocket or a prolonged period of expansion/contraction.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    8. Re:Probably too strong by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      I'm inclined to think that sensitivity might be caused by the expansion difference, but for it to actually crack the tooth is almost certainly going to take some combination of circumstances like an air pocket or a prolonged period of expansion/contraction

      I am inclined to believe that the explanation was complete BS.

      Some years ago, I had a tooth that had an older amalgam filling completely shatter. What was I doing? I was biting down on ... a chocolate chip. Yeah, at home, normal temperatures and the force of biting down on a chocolate chip was enough to cause the tooth to shatter. So, more likely explanation: there was already enough damage to the tooth that any small pressure could cause the failure.

      The replacement of your other two fillings may well have been unnecessary work just to boost the dentist's income.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    9. Re: Probably too strong by budgenator · · Score: 1

      If the expansion is greater than the elasticity the margins will separate from the enamel and there will be microleakage, which allows bacterial acids to cause secondary decay. No matter how strong the material is, it will fail if there is secondary decay, the whole thing will just pop off. Don't forget, no matter how good the physical properties are, Dentists aren't going to use it if it's difficult to place and polish and Patients aren't going to accept it if it looks like shit.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    10. Re:Probably too strong by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 1

      From painful experience it's not just about the tensile strength, the difference in thermal expansion/contraction rate matters as well. Going from snow covered mountain peaks at -10C to a desert with +40C temperatures in just a few hours was sufficient to cause a large filling in one of my molars to expand sufficiently faster than the tooth it was in to cause the tooth to shatter. Net result: one crown, two other fillings of the same amalgam replaced just in case, and quite a large bill.

      I'll wager that your teeth did not reach the extremes of -10C or +40C. That wouldn't bode well for the rest of you living. I think you had some bad dental work where a gas pocket was left under the filling.

      --

      Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

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    11. Re: Probably too strong by Lew-the-nerd · · Score: 1

      Sorry, wrong.
      The relative expansion, contraction of materials allows margins of fillings to leak.
      The benefit of amalgams is that they corrode in the margins and the corrosion products seal the gap.

  5. Yeah But by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Then your teeth just erode around the fillings. Can I just get a set of permanently-affixed graphene replacement teeth? Then I could bite through cable car cables like that one Bond villain!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re: Yeah But by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Do your other teeth erode? Just because the fillings are super strong doesn't make your mouth stronger, pain receptors less sensitive, or your existing teeth weaker. I have one filling and its completely shot after 8 years, it would be nice if they lasted a lifetime.

    2. Re: Yeah But by Greyfox · · Score: 1

      Heh, all that Air Force dental work I had 30 years ago is still hanging in there pretty well. The old stuff may have been made from mercury, uranium and asbestos but damn does it last!

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    3. Re: Yeah But by jabuzz · · Score: 1

      It's called a replacement tooth. Basically you harvest some stem cells, do some magic, implant into the jaw and wait while a replacement tooth grows back.

      They are having quite a bit of success in lab animals. Though one imagines that they probably won't do a full tooth replacement when a filling could do the trick. On the other hand, crowns, inlays, root canal work etc. will all be out the window.

    4. Re: Yeah But by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Here's hoping that they figure it out.

  6. My amalgam fillings have lasted a while. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    Typical metal fillings can corrode and composite fillings are not very strong.

    For what it's worth, I have three (conservative) amalgam filling in my upper molars that were put in when I was 17. I'm now 52 and my dentist says they're still fine. Though, I'm told that have really good "home care"... From what I've heard, composite fillings should only really be installed on non-chewing surfaces when appearance matters, so strength shouldn't really be an issue.

    But I guess 200 times stronger and longer lasting would be better, especially if they solve that pesky aging / dying problem.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:My amalgam fillings have lasted a while. by gilgongo · · Score: 1

      I have nine amalgam fillings given to me when I was between the ages of 6 and 9 by a private dentist in the USA. I then went to school in the UK and had checkups twice a year on the NHS, and not a single filling installed since then. I'm 49 now, and with the exception of a recent chip out of the back of a molar, I've been fine. I haven't seen a dentist once in over 20 years.

      --
      "And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
  7. Graphene Shows Promise...? by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's been showing Promise for lots of things for a long time now. Is is actually USED for anything yet?

    Sheesh, it's becoming just like Fusion.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Graphene Shows Promise...? by hawkinspeter · · Score: 2

      Not sure how effective it is, but Vittoria are using it in their new road bike tyres: http://road.cc/content/news/16...

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    2. Re: Graphene Shows Promise...? by Lennie · · Score: 1

      As I understand it most carbon fiber is not graphene.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
  8. composite fillings are strong by avandesande · · Score: 1

    I have a composite filling that is 27 years old and never had issues with it. I chew ice and haven't been particularly careful.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  9. Re:"making it a prime new candidate for dental fil by Anomalyst · · Score: 2

    So exactly how bad are your teeth that the need industrial quantities?

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    There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
  10. 200 times stronger than steel? by nytes · · Score: 1

    Hope you don't need something done like a root canal on a tooth with a filling. Drilling through that stuff is probably going to be pretty tough.

    --
    -- I have monkeys in my pants.
  11. Current tech is pretty good but expensive by movdqa · · Score: 1

    I had a bunch of amalgam fillings replaced with porcelain fillings many years ago. These things look great, perform better than the originals and amalgam and aren't subject to decay. My dentist has a Cerec machine (Siemens) that takes a 3-D picture of the tooth and he designs a cap, pushes a button and a device grinds out the cap and he then glues it in - one visit service. He's had this system since the 1990s. The only downside is that they cost $400 to $600 a pop. A lot more for crowns. He does composite fillings as well for simpler fillings. He stopped doing amalgam fillings long ago though these are the cheapest approach. Graphene supposedly nasty for the lungs so I'd hope that any production process would not release this stuff into the air. Head supposedly uses Graphene in its tennis racquets though I suspect that it's a tiny amount of the stuff.

  12. Not in my mouth by Cthefuture · · Score: 1

    Sorry but I'm not putting any "nano" crystal type anything in my mouth. Coal dust, carbon fiber, fiberglass, silica, asbestos... Hello? Have we learned nothing?

    --
    The ratio of people to cake is too big
  13. Strong compared to what? by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    If the tooth is substantially stronger than the jaw it is embedded in (or the peg of tooth is is cemented to) you won't have to worry about a broken tooth. You'll have a different, and probably worse, problem.

    I'm pretty sure the same general concern applies to adhesives that are much stronger than what they glue together, and to thread that's much stronger than the pieces of cloth it sews together.

    Easy enough to solve. Just replace the peg of tooth with graphene. And the tooth's root with graphene. And the jaw with graphene. And ...

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  14. Imalgams by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    I have some imalgams from 1974. Still working, no signs of a problem today. They may last longer than the rest of me.

  15. Re:More spackling by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Growing new ones sounds unworkable. I skimmed the article and couldn't find any mention about how long they think it would take, but think about it: how long did it take you to grow those teeth in the first place? Quite a while; that's why we have "baby teeth", while the new ones are growing into place.

    I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't want to wait a year for a replacement tooth to grow into place. Current methods don't have this problem: you can be in and out of the dentist's office in a few hours at most and be ready to use your new tooth/teeth.

    Also, real teeth actually suck. They're too easy to damage, they rot easily, they're just not very durable. They also stain easily and require regular whitening treatments. It'd be better if we just had them all replaced with fake ones. The only reason we don't do this is because it's too expensive, so only rich Hollywood actors bother with it.

  16. Another stupid non-article by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

    What a pile of crap slashdot has turned into.

  17. Re:I'm sure the kooks will find some problems. by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

    I wasn't aware that graphene had been proven safe for ingestion, or that any extensive studies have been done on the impact of exposure to it.

    Silly cowardly anon troll.