Dental Implants: New Process Could Improve Dental Implants

![]Mit](http://osseonews.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/mit.jpg)

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In work that could radically change how engineers search for new materials, MIT researchers have developed a way to test the mechanical properties of almost 600 different materials in a matter of days — a task that would have taken weeks using conventional techniques.

The new process could lead to the faster identification of dental implants that don’t crack,
tank armor that’s more resistant to missiles, and other materials
dependent on mechanical properties like stiffness and toughness.

Van Vliet, MSE graduate student Catherine A. Tweedie, research associate Daniel G. Anderson of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Institute Professor Robert Langer describe the work in the cover story of the November issue of Advanced Materials.

Together the researchers showed that the mechanical properties of each biomaterial could indeed be determined — and quickly — by combining the arrays with nanoindentation, a technique key to Van Vliet’s work.

Learn more about this new technique and how it might apply to dental implants,
click here to read the full article.