Collaborative Research: Smart Dental Implant System for Ambulatory Dental Care

Every year, approximately 5 million implants are placed to replace missing teeth in the United States. Although the dental implant practice shows initial high success rates, many studies reported high occurrences of peri-implant diseases, up to 50% after 10-years of installation. These peri-implant diseases can potentially lead to patient discomfort, painful and costly surgical replacement of failed implants, and even the overall oral health breakdown.

In particular, the geriatric population, smokers, or patients with a history of chronic periodontitis or diabetes were more vulnerable to peri-implant diseases. A significant body of studies indicates that the root causes of peri-implant disease are the accumulation of dental plaque at the soft tissue-implant interface and the subsequent local inflammation.

Today, numerous antimicrobial agents are available, potentially reducing bacterial activity on the dental crown surface. However, most of these agents may not be appropriate for long-term use because these may disrupt ecological microbiota and induce drug resistance over time. In addition, antimicrobial coating surfaces have not been a great success due to the gradual loss of therapeutic agents into the surrounding environment.

As such, the overall objective of this project is to build a practical strategy to prevent peri-implant disease by enhancing the immunity of peripheral soft tissue against bacterial infection. Furthermore, the project integrates the research with educational venues by mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, including underrepresented minorities and female students, developing interdisciplinary curricula to bridge the gap between engineering and biomedical research.

The project leverages cross-cutting innovations spanning engineering and dental medicine to create an ambulatory dental care platform, a human oral motion-powered Smart Dental Implant (SDI) system. The SDI system enables in situ, highly effective, and targeted low-level light therapy in proximity to disease-prone areas. The SDI system represents a significant opportunity to improve the prevention of peri-implant disease.

This project 1) elucidates the unprecedented potential of human oral biomechanical energy harvesting as a reliable power source, 2) understands the underlying mechanism of the photon-cell-microbe interaction in the new mode of near-contact low-level light therapy, and 3) validates the SDI system using a clinically relevant animal model of peri-implantitis. The outcome of this award will provide new perspectives on preventing and controlling the onset of peri-implant diseases.

In addition, a successful demonstration of the energy harvesting technology will simultaneously extend the range of applicability in any field requiring near-zero power application. Finally, a similar concept can also be replicated in other microbially induced inflammations, such as skin wound healing and sustaining orthopedic implants.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.