Developing a New Generation of Biosafe Composites for Tooth Restoration – Focus on Biocompatibility, Toxicity and Biodegradation

Resin composite is currently the most used material in dentistry, enabling minimally invasive and nearly invisible tooth restoration. Besides nano-dust issues, there are also particular safety concerns regarding the potential release of the endocrine disruptor ‘bisphenol A’ (BPA). BPA can be present in composites as production contaminant and/or degradation product, originating from BPA-based monomers, such as BisGMA. The latter serves as a polymerization ‘cross-linker’ and is a main monomer matrix ingredient of many of today’s commercial dental composites (and other resin-based dental materials). Its bi-aromatic BPA core imparts mechanical strength, rigidity and hydrophobicity to the composite matrix. Thanks to a recent KU Leuven research & development breakthrough, BPA-free bi-aromatic diols have been synthesized from wood and appear very promising to replace BisGMA in dental composite, with even the potential to further improve physico-mechanical properties of composite. This multidisciplinary project, combining bioengineering technology with dental material science, aims to develop a new generation of biosafe dental composites based on bioproduced BisGMA monomer alternatives. The project involves the production as well as the biocompatibility, physico-mechanical and chemical property testing of experimental BPA-free composite formulations as compared to current dental composite material standards.