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- Dental Implant with Slow-Release Medication Reservoir
Researchers have developed a dental implant with a built-in reservoir for the slow release of drugs. This schematic presents it integrated into the jawbone and with a crown on the tooth.
Image credit: Kaat De Cremer, KU Leuven
Image credit: Kaat De Cremer, KU Leuven
The researchers, from various departments at KU Leuven in Belgium, describe how they designed and tested the implant in a paper published in the journal European Cells& Materials .
Lead author Dr. Kaat De Cremer, from the Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics at KU Leuven, explains that the reservoir in the implant can be filled by removing the cover bolt.
” The implant is made of a porous composite material, so that the narcotics gradually diffuse from the reservoir to the outside of the implant, which is in direct contact with the bone cells. As an outcome, the bacteria can no longer form a biofilm .”
In general, bacteria have two life-forms. In one, the planktonic nation, they exist as single, independent cells, and in the other, they aggregate in a slime-enclosed mass called a biofilm.