Development of an innovative urease-aided self-healing dental composite

Abstract

Dental restorative materials suffer from major drawbacks, namely fracture and shrinkage, which result in failure and require restoration and replacement. There are different methods to address these issues, such as increasing the filler load or changing the resin matrix of the composite. In the present work, we introduce a new viable process to heal the generated cracks with the aid of urease enzyme. In this system, urease breaks down the salivary urea which later binds with calcium to form calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). The formation of insoluble CaCO₃ fills any resultant fracture or shrinkage from the dental composure hardening step. The healing process and the formation of CaCO₃ within dental composites were successfully confirmed by optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) methods. This research demonstrates a new protocol to increase the service life of dental restoration composites in the near future.