3-D Printed Antimicrobial Teeth May Soon Be A Possibility.

Healthline (1/14, Barrett) reports that “the rapid evolution of 3-D printing technology in the dental industry will soon expand beyond simply creating crowns or dentures to incorporate chemicals that fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay and infection in the first place.” Researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have reportedly “developed an antimicrobial plastic infused with quaternary ammonium salts that can eventually be used with 3-D printers to manufacture a variety of bacteria-zapping dental appliances within minutes, right in a dentist’s office.” A study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials showed that after applying the bacteria Streptococcus mutans to printed teeth, one set with the ammonium salts mixed into the dental resin and the other without, “99 percent of the bacteria was eliminated from the treated teeth while almost all of the bacteria remained on the control set.”