Development of a Miniature Plasma Brush for Dental Clinical Applications

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nanova, Inc. is developing a miniature non-thermal gas plasma brush that is operated in open air and can be used for dental cavity treatment and preparation in dental clinics. To date, preparation of dental cavities prior to filling relies on mechanical drilling or laser techniques, which cause discomforts and pain to patients due to mechanical stimulation (vibration) and heating of the dental nerve. These methods are often destructive, because plenty of healthy tissue must be removed to ensure a sufficient disinfection. Moreover, the clinical life time for posterior composite restorations using the current methods typically last only 6 - 8 years with 70% failures occur at the dentin-composite interface. Such interfacial failures often cause microleakage, sensitivity, recurrent caries, composite restoration removal and replacement, and eventually loss of the infected teeth after several repeated restorations due to the destructive preparation processes. In contrast, non-thermal gas plasma treatment will be a painless, nondestructive, and tissue-saving method for dental cavity preparation because of its non-thermal and non-destructive nature, distinguished chemical reactivity, and rapid sterilizing capability. When applied to dental cavity treatment and preparation, non-thermal plasmas provides a unique opportunity to chemically activate dentin surface, thus to implement chemical bonding and enhance adhesion strength at dentin-composite interfaces, and consequently to increase the longevity of dental restorations. Successful development of such a miniature plasma brush that is suitable to dental clinical applications could become a high-impact innovation in dentistry. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Nanova, Inc. is developing a miniature non-thermal gas plasma brush that is operated in open air and can be used for dental cavity treatment and preparation in dental clinics without causing discomforts to patients. Successful development of such a miniature plasma brush will enable us to apply plasma surface/interface engineering to dentin preparation for composite restorations with significantly improved clinical performance and durability, and could become a high-impact innovation in dentistry.