NEW DELHI, May 16:
Nano-sized robots manipulated using a magnetic field can help kill bacteria deep inside the teeth, and boost the success of root canal treatments, according to a study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru.
Root canal treatments are routinely carried out to treat tooth infections in millions of patients. The procedure involves removing the infected soft tissue inside the tooth, called the pulp, and flushing the tooth with antibiotics or chemicals to kill the bacteria that cause the infection.
However, many times, the treatment fails to completely remove all the bacteria — especially antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis — which remain hidden inside microscopic canals in the tooth called dentinal tubules.
“The dentinal tubules are very small, and bacteria reside deep in the tissue. Current techniques are not efficient enough to go all the way inside and kill the bacteria,” said Shanmukh Srinivas, Research Associate at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), and co-founder of IISc-incubated startup, Theranautilus.
In the study published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, the researchers designed helical nanobots made of silicon dioxide coated with iron, which can be controlled using a device that generates a low intensity magnetic field.
These nanobots were then injected into extracted tooth samples and their movement was tracked using a microscope.
By tweaking the frequency of the magnetic field, the researchers were able to make the nanobots move at will, and penetrate deep inside the dentinal tubules.
“We have also established that we can retrieve them … we can pull them back out of the patient’s teeth,” said Srinivas. (PTI)
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