According to a press release sent by the university, joint activities of teams from Poland and Taiwan are possible thanks to funding from the Polish National Centre for Research and Development and MOST (The Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan) for the CERMET project.
“The result will be a composite implant that can potentially replace a human tooth. Its scaffolding, made of aluminum oxides, is manufactured using the additive method [3D printing], which guarantees that it will be tailored to the needs of a specific patient,” said the press release.
In the upper part (crown), the ceramic structure is solid, and in the lower part (root) it is porous. Thanks to this, it can be saturated with liquid metal - a magnesium alloy. This will reduce the fragility of the structure, and the core itself will initially act as an ‘anchor,’
holding the implant in the jaw. Magnesium will gradually degrade, freeing up space for bone tissue to grow in (this process is osseointegration).
As a result, the implant will become very stable - embedded in human tissue.
Scientists from Taiwan, in collaboration with researchers from Wrocław, develop appropriate ceramic preforms with open porosity, i.e. structures that, combined with a metal core, will form an implant. These structures are sent to the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, where researchers from the Department of Lightweight Elements Engineering, Foundry and Automation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering infuse them with metal - a
biocompatible magnesium alloy.
Project still in early phases
“We are in the early stage of our project, so for now we are testing two casting techniques and then we will choose the most advantageous one. The first is the pressure infiltration method, or more precisely pressing from the liquid state, in which a ceramic shape is placed in the press chamber and poured with liquid metal, and then, lowering the piston, we press the liquid metal into the porosity of the preform,” explained Dr. Anna Dmitruk in the press release.
“The second technique is precision casting, also used in jewelry making. Here, we first create a plaster mold for a previously prepared wax or plastic model,” she added.
Work in the CERMET initiative will continue for three years. The result will be an implant prototype. After it is developed, scientists can seek financing for subsequent stages of work, including pre-medical research.
The project leader is Professor Krzysztof Naplocha from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and
his team members are Dr. Anna Dmitruk, Dr. Adrianna Filipiak-Kaczmarek and Natalia Raźny.
