Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru have develop very small nanobots that can be inject into the teeth to kill bacteria and better Root Canal Treatment (RCT).
The latest ingenuity can better dental treatment by killing germs deep inside dentinal tubules.
Root Canal Treatment-RCT is a common technique to treat tooth infections, which involves removing the infect soft tissue inside the tooth, call as the pulp, and flushing the tooth with antibiotics or chemicals to kill the bacteria that cause the infection.
As per new study, researchers at IISc have detail the development of helical nanobots made of silicon dioxide coated with iron, which can be control using a device that generates a low-intensity magnetic field.
The study has publish in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.
Shanmukh Srinivas, Research Associate at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Said :
“The dentinal tubules are very small, and bacteria reside deep in the tissue. Current techniques are not efficient enough to go all the way inside and kill the bacteria,”.
Researches in the past have shown that such nanoparticles can trap and move objects using light.
The nanobots, develop at IISc-incubated startup Theranautilus, were inject into extract tooth samples and their movement was track using a microscope.
IISc said that by tweaking the frequency of the magnetic field, the researchers were able to make the nanobots move at will, and penetrate deep inside the dentinal tubules.
They manipulate the magnetic field to make the surface of the nanobots generate heat, which can kill the bacteria nearby.
Shanmukh Srinivas, Said :
“We have also established that we can retrieve them. We can pull them back out of the patient’s teeth,”.
The team has test the dental nanobots in mice models and found them to be safe and effective.
They are also working on developing a new kind of medical device that can easily fit inside the mouth, and allow the dentist to inject and manipulate the nanobots inside the teeth during root canal treatment.
The helical nanobot is made of silicon dioxide coated with iron.
Debayan Dasgupta, Research Associate at CeNSE, and a co-founder of Theranautilus Said :
“No other technology in the market can do this right now.”
Ambarish Ghosh, Professor at CeNSE, who led the studies Said :
“These studies have shown that they are safe to use in biological tissues. We are very close to deploying this technology in a clinical setting, which was considered futuristic even three years ago. It is a joy to see how a simple scientific curiosity is shaping into a medical intervention that can impact millions of people in India alone.”
Many other researches in the past have shown that such nanoparticles can trap and move objects using light, swim through blood and inside living cells, and stick strongly to cancer cells.
