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Engineering Teeth

A mixture of surface chemistry and bioengineering is being used to examine dental implants at Auckland University. A two-year project is aiming to improve the biocompatibility of dental materials and to find substitutes for current dental metals.

"Titanium and niobium are very expensive and very difficult to work with," says Professor Jim Metson of the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department.

"Your average dentist can't work with them."

Titanium has a biocompatible surface which makes it very useful in dental applications. Part of the research aims to identify why the metal is biocompatible. The research team hopes to develop a user-friendly metal which can bond with biological molecules.