Two researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center created a new dental composite named FibreKor with the strength characteristics of a stealth bomber’s surface, and aesthetic characteristics that please dentists and patients.

What might stealth bombers and some modern dental bridges, crowns, splints and posts have in common? At first glance, not much. But if you look below the surface of FibreKor®, a dental composite, and the skin of the bomber, you’ll find tiny glass reinforcing fibers that make both durable and strong.

Two University of Connecticut Health Center researchers – materials scientist Jon Goldberg, Ph.D., and orthodontist Charles Burstone, D.D.S. – collaborated in the late 1980s to create the fiber-reinforced material now used by dentists around the world in a number of dental devices.

The Old State of the Art Was Metal
“Before we did this, the state of the art was metal,” Burstone says. “But metal is not transparent and, unfortunately, has the undesirable effect of darkening the tooth.”

Once technicians build the base of a FibreKor bridge or crown, they coat it with an existing plastic restorative material to complete the artificial tooth that is strong and natural looking without requiring a metal base. Posts and splints also are advantageous because they look like real tooth enamel. And dentists can use FibreKor to make some dental devices right in their offices on a while-you-wait basis.

The high-quality and flexible product is the first commercially successful dental application of a fiber-reinforced composite, and it’s an ideal fit in the field. “People had tried to use polymers in the past. But they didn’t have the rigidity or other attributes needed for dentistry,” Burstone says. “But by putting in fibers, we discovered that you could have both pleasing aesthetics and the desired mechanical properties.”

Going Outside the Literature
To find answers for their endeavor, the pair went outside dental literature – to the U.S. Air Force. “We looked at how they made the skin of stealth bombers,” he says. “And we found some of the information there.”

“I don’t know if this is the gold standard for dentistry,” Burstone says. “But the polymer products look much better than metal, certainly.”

Originally appeared in “Association of University Technology Managers, Better World Report”