image: SEM images of self-healing dental composites: before and after heal. Self-healing composites may autonomously repair microcracks that is hard to detect and almost impossible to repair manually.
Credit: Image courtesy of Jirun Sun, PhD, ADA Forsyth Institute
The ADA Forsyth Institute (AFI) has been awarded a $6.2 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Funded under the highly competitive RM1 mechanism, this five-year award will support a groundbreaking project to develop next-generation smart materials for dental fillings using physics-based artificial intelligence (AI). This innovation marks one of the first applications of AI for basic research in oral health, aimed at accelerating the testing and development process.
Next-Generation Smart Material
The new dental composite will feature self-healing and antimicrobial properties, incorporating nanofillers that react to biological signals. “Imagine you have a crack developing in the filling,” said biomaterials expert Jirun Sun, PhD, the contact principal investigator (PI) leading the multi-PI team.
“The material will detect that change and repair the crack. Or if your mouth has a lot of acid that lowers the pH, which is known to break down traditional composites and tooth structure, the material will counteract the acid. The smart material will automatically respond to changing conditions in each individual patient’s mouth.”
Transdisciplinary Effort Maximizing AI Capabilities
The transdisciplinary team of scientists will integrate experiments with a physics-based model of testing and data-driven simulations as part of the material design and evaluation of these complex and dynamic materials. The AFI team has partnered with Optimuos, a digital engineering firm specializing in digital twin technologies, to build the AI driven solution.
“Without this approach, the number of parameters that we must test would have taken decades to complete,” said Dr. Sun. “Incorporating artificial intelligence and virtual lab simulations into the physical material development process, based on well-defined laws of physics and chemistry, will accelerate our goal of transforming personalized dental care.”
Ben Wu, DDS, PhD, the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer of AFI, emphasized the project’s broader implications. “This grant is the first step to leveraging AI and deep learning to facilitate and accelerate research. This approach can be applied to the other cutting edge innovative research at AFI, from managing drug-resistant biofilm to aberrant immunological host response, and much more. Our institute is well positioned to leverage the new tools of bioengineering, AI and data science to accelerate discovery and impact oral health.”
Applications in Dentistry
The new material will be optimized to provide a viable replacement for amalgam, a cost effective and durable solution that is slowly being phased down around the world. Although alternative restorative filling materials currently exist, they may need to be replaced more often and can be more expensive to use. The scientists are designing these new materials to be easy to use and accessible to everyone.
“AFI scientists aren’t just creating something more durable, they’re creating a completely different generation of dental composite,” said Dr. Raymond Cohlmia, Executive Director of the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Chair of AFI’s board of directors. “This smart material could revolutionize dental care and drastically improve patient outcomes. The future of dental restorations – and so much more – is happening now. I’m so proud that AFI is at the forefront.”
Joining Dr. Sun on this exciting, multiple PI award are Drs. Felicitas Bidlack, Yulong Zhang, Xuesong He, and Ben Wu from AFI; Dr. Leyla Mirmomen, Chief Executive Officer at Optimuos; and Dr. Pirouz Kavehpour, Professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and Chief Scientist at Optimuos.
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About the ADA Forsyth Institute
The ADA Forsyth Institute was founded in 1910 as the Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children (later, the Forsyth Institute), to provide dental care to the disadvantaged children of Boston. While continuing to serve children in need, yet recognizing the ultimate goal is to prevent dental disease, the Institute in 1915 began to focus on scientific research and is today the world’s leader in oral health research. In October of 2023, the Institute joined with the American Dental Association to form the ADA Forsyth Institute, a 501(c)(3) entity dedicated to improving people’s oral and overall health and powering the profession of dentistry through cutting-edge basic research, creative translational science, innovative clinical technologies, and global public health outreach. Consistent with the Institute’s founding mission, the ADA ForsythKids mobile dental program continues to serve children in need.