2023-10-27 21:15:10
The loss of a tooth can considerably reduce a person’s quality of life. From the field of dentistry, it is dental implantology that addresses this problem. However, people who have risk factors such as diabetes, alcoholism, smoking, advanced age, menopause or who are undergoing aggressive therapeutic treatments cannot always resort to dental implants.
These risk factors limit the bone’s ability to regenerate, which directly affects the process by which dental implants blend into the patient’s entire dental structure after placement.
For this reason, the Department of Polymeric Biomaterials of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) proposes a strategy to universalize dental implants and thus, all profiles are suitable to undergo dental implantology. As Irene Toledo Alday suggests in her Final Degree Project, this strategy consists of “incorporating a drug known as simvastatin in a coating that would be adhered to the surface of the dental implant.”
The objective of this strategy is to achieve a localized release of a drug that helps regenerate the bone around the implant.
“In the laboratory, I have studied the viability of the aforementioned strategy,” continues Irene Toledo, “simulating the physiological conditions, with the development of three sol-gel coatings with simvastatin incorporated in different proportions.” The sol-gel coatings obtained have a chemical nature already studied and optimized by the Polymeric Biomaterials group, whose research reveals the possibility of using them for the diffusion of active molecules. “Diffusion takes place when the coatings are in an aqueous medium, through the degradation or erosion of the matrix that contains them, or through the hydrolysis of the bonds that bind it to the matrix.”
To study the behavior of coatings containing simvastatin, Irene Toledo developed three sol-gel coatings with simvastatin incorporated at 1.3% and 5% with respect to the precursors that constitute them, respectively. “After several physical-chemical and functional characterization tests, the synthesized coatings proved to be an adequate release matrix for the drug, which was produced progressively over four weeks in an environment that simulates the conditions of the oral cavity. This period is decisive for the clinical success of a dental implant, especially in people who have the aforementioned risk factors.”
A cytotoxicity study has revealed that the three coatings developed aim to be biocompatible, thus demonstrating the possibility of resulting in a viable option to universalize dental implants.
“To complete the study, it would be necessary to carry out a complete biological characterization where, through more specific cellular assays, the possibility of using the coatings developed in patients could be confirmed,” concludes Irene Toledo.
Irene Toledo in the polymeric biomaterials laboratory of the Faculty of Chemistry (Photo: Nagore Iraola / UPV/EHU)
About the author of the study
Irene Toledo Alday has defended her Final Degree Project this year under the title ‘Incorporation of simvastatin into sol-gel coatings for dental implants’, at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Basque Country, under the direction of Isabel Goñi Echave and Iñaki García Arnáez, from the Polymeric Biomaterials group. Irene Toledo is currently completing a master’s degree in Chemistry and Polymers at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Basque Country. (Source: UPV/EHU)
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