It was 4 years ago that the blog reported on this unique dental collaboration of scientists from the UK and Holland. Professor Damien Walmsley and Dr Rachel Sammons (Dentistry – University of Birmingham) and Gareth Price (Chemistry – Bath) jointly hold an EPSRC grant titled “Biofilm disruption by cavitation generated by dental ultrasonic instrumentation.” A progress meeting on the grant was held at the Forrest Hotel, Dorridge Solihull and the participants included
- University of Birmingham (Damien Walmsley, Rachel Sammons, Emilia Pecheva, Nina Vyas -PhD student)
- Erasmus Intern, Rennes Dental School Marco Mazevet
- University of Bath (Gareth Price, Judith Brown)
- University of Twente (Michel Versluis, Bram Verhaagan-BuBclean)
- University of Groningen (Luc van der Sluis, Master student Stefanie Wieringa)
- National Physical Laboratory (Mark Hodnett)
Subjects covered in the review was the removal of biofilm on ultrasonic scalers, cavitation and acoustic micro streaming, imaging of artificial plaque with McroCT and the use of nanoparticles. Not only was the use of ultrasound in periodontology covered but also it use in endodontics as well. All participating researchers have a strong interdisciplinary ethos where either a physicist or chemist is partnering with a dental scientist. Both groups are looking into the removal of biofilm by fluid mechanics powered by ultrasonics. However all the work presented has a larger knowledge base that extends into other areas of ultrasound and its uses in dentistry. Michel Versluis wrapped up the day with an overview of all the talks and also presented some exciting work by his own research group on droplet formation and ultrasonics.
BrumDentists 