Demenciel

Generally caused by trauma, dental infection, or periodontal disease, the loss of one or more teeth has harmful consequences for oral health (loosening of adjacent teeth, chewing difficulties, bone resorption). The treatment of choice consists of replacing the missing tooth or teeth with one or more dental implants. However, for implant placement to be long-lasting, a sufficient volume of alveolar bone is required. To ensure the preservation of alveolar bone volume, the guided bone regeneration procedure is now widely accepted among implantology clinicians.

This technique involves the use of a bone substitute (serving as a support for new bone formation) combined with a barrier membrane. The placement of this barrier membrane pursues three objectives:

• Stabilize the space occupied by the bone substitute, thus forming a regeneration chamber;
• Allow the attachment of connective tissue in order to avoid the risk of membrane exposure;
• Prevent colonization of the regeneration chamber by cells from the overlying mucosa, thereby promoting reconstruction of the alveolar bone.

The membranes used may be resorbable. To be optimal, their resorption rate must be controlled and their degradation products must be biocompatible. However, the vast majority of resorbable membranes currently on the market are xenogeneic (i.e. derived from a species other than humans), which implies variability in chemical composition, lower patient acceptance, and decreasing compliance with medical device regulations.

The objective of the DEMENCIEL project is to develop an innovative barrier membrane for guided bone regeneration that meets, as comprehensively as possible, the various safety, quality, and performance criteria established in consultation with the industrial partner. These innovative barrier membranes will be manufactured using an electrospinning process, enabling the production of a non-woven mat (i.e. non-oriented, with randomly distributed fibers) of “core–shell” nanofibers.

Electrospinning is a simple and reliable technology for producing non-woven polymer membranes composed of fibers with diameters of only a few nanometers. The technique involves charging and ejecting a polymer solution under a high-voltage electric field to form a filament. This filament is then collected on a collector, forming the membrane. Due to the small size of the ejected fibers, the membranes produced exhibit a high surface-to-volume ratio and high porosity with an interconnected pore network. Structuring these electrospun nanofibers will make it possible to control both the porosity of the barrier membrane and its bioresorption rate.

Coordinator:

• Dental-Biomaterials Research Unit, ULiège

Research partners:

• Centre d’Étude et de Recherche sur les Macromolécules (CERM), ULiège
• Centexbel

Industrial support:

• WishBone Biotech (Flémalle)