A01 Explain why biocompatibility, mechanical properties, handling characteristics, esthetics and economy must be considered when a dental material is selected
What should we expect from a dental biomaterial? There is no doubt that ideally, the material should .....
Biocompatibility: Dental biomaterials are used in a biological environment. If they are not biocompatible, they could induce toxic or allergic reactions. This is a very important factor to consider, but remember that very few materials are totally biocompatible.
Mechanical properties: A material used in the oral environment has to withstand cyclic/dynamic loads, corrosion, wear, fatigue etc. If the material fails, it could be swallowed and the swallowed parts could cause internal damages when they past the intestinal. In addition, failures could also cause embarrassing situations for the person who uses a failed construction.
Handling characteristics: Most materials used today are manually crafted. The skill level of different dentists differs, and so do also the handling conditions. To produce optimal results under most conditions, it is important that a dental material is easy to handle (technique insensitive) under most conditions. Such an easy to handle material will give acceptable results even under less ideal handling conditions. Another advantage with simple to handle materials is that they often result in less expensive treatment costs.
Aesthetics: Beautiful teeth represent youth and health. Because of expressions such as "Looking good is feeling good" it is easy to understand why the aesthetic demands have increased rather than decreased as we have moved into an information-communication age. "Aesthetic Dentistry" is now a concept despite the fact that dentistry has always been aesthetically oriented.
Economy: Dental care costs in the Western World range from 5-10% of the total health care cost. Because of the rather large cost this represents, many patients cannot afford expensive treatments. Therefore, there is a need to develop dental materials that fall within an acceptable price range and can satisfy the treatment needs of less fortunate.
Before we proceed discussing dental materials, we should list different dental materials and try to classify them into the three main groups. These three groups are: metals, ceramics and metals. Based on our previous experience of these three main material groups and their properties, we can now draw some general conclusions regarding the different dental materials and their properties. The above leads us to the conclusion that a fundamental question is: What causes metals, ceramics and polymers to form specific material groups? The answer is simply: The atomic bond. In the following objectives we will expand our thoughts further and explain why differences in atomic bond formation results in the three main material groups.