A bioactive borate glass adhesive system is described for its composition and use in adhering a plurality of dental restorative components onto a tooth surface. The adhesive system comprises silanated borate bioactive glass particles and a biocompatible resin blend. The bioactive adhesive system functions as a non-degradable, permanent adhesive in tooth restoration in the presence of saliva. In addition, the bioactive borate adhesive system may be used for re-mineralization, de-sensitization and self-healing of dentin and enamel by releasing and depositing calcium and phosphate ions onto the exposed and damaged tooth surface.

The present invention relates in particular to the storage of dental material in a device (10, 10′) and the application of the dental material (20) from such a device (10,10′), and a method for treating dental material (20). In order to provide a solution that allows the simple and practical handling of a dental material (20) in the sense of storage, application and/or treatment thereof, inter alia, a device (10, 10′) for storage and application (20) comprising a cavity (12) for storage of the dental material (20) and a wall (14) surrounding the cavity (12) is proposed, wherein the wall (14) in at least a first temperature range is impermeable to radiation of at least a first wavelength or a first wavelength range in the range of 100 nm to 500 nm, wherein the wall (14) comprises at least one area that at least in a second temperature range is permeable to radiation of at least a second wavelength or a second wavelength range in the range of 600 nm to 50,000 nm.

An oral appliance having a body, the body including a plate member and a lighting system. The plate member having a first surface, the first surface including a top portion, a center portion, and a bottom portion. The lighting system includes a first lighting sub-system having at least one first light source, where the at least one first light source arranged in the center portion of the plate member, and a second lighting sub-system having at least one second light source, where the at least one second light source arranged in the top portion of the plate member and/or the bottom portion of the plate member. The at least one first light source is arranged to produce a first light at a first wavelength and the at least one second light source is arranged to produce a second light at a second wavelength.

A dental apparatus is disclosed that includes an elongated body, a plurality of light-emitting elements distributed along the elongated body, and a controller configured to individually enable the plurality of light-emitting elements.

A method and apparatus providing orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) using a removable aligner, by providing a shaped removable aligner formed of a thermoplastic and moulded to an OTM fitting shape relative to the teeth of a patient; applying a layer of a gel to an inner surface of a teeth-receiving cavity of the thermoplastic aligner; locating the shaped removable aligner with the applied gel layer in a required OTM fitting position on the teeth of the patient to provide an effective OTM force on the teeth; wherein the gel layer substantially separates and spaces the aligner from the teeth while providing a force transfer mechanism from the aligner to the teeth.

Systems and methods for additive manufacturing of ZrO.sub.2 ceramic objects, and in particular ZrO.sub.2-based ceramic dental crowns. A method includes mixing a doped ZrO.sub.2 powder with a photo-curable resin to produce a printing mixture, 3D printing of a dental crown green body structure using the printing mixture, wherein the 3D printing includes an advanced digital light processing (ADLP) process using a gradient printing technique to form a color gradient in the dental crown green body structure, debinding the dental crown green body structure to remove organic polymers using one of a thermal debinding process, an infrared debinding process, and a laser debinding process, sintering the debound dental crown structure to produce a densified dental crown structure using one of a pressureless sintering process, a laser sintering process, and an electric field sintering process, and surface engineering the densified dental crown structure to produce a finished dental crown structure using one of a mechanical polishing process, a laser polishing process, a laser shock peening process, a shot peening process, and a water jet process.

The invention relates to a method for sealing of a circumferentially closed canal. A closure element is secured to one free end of a light guide conducting a laser beam. The light guide with the closure element is introduced into the canal. The closure element is positioned in the region of the canal to be sealed and after positioning of the closure element energy is introduced, so that the closure element melts or softens and remains in this position in the canal and seals it tightly.

A method of charging a battery of a dental light irradiation device has the steps of powering the battery at a first charging current and measuring a first terminal voltage of the battery; powering the battery at a different second charging current and measuring a second terminal voltage of the battery; calculating a battery source voltage; and powering off the battery as soon as the battery source voltage reaches or exceeds the threshold voltage.

This invention relates to a tooth repair system including a method of: drilling an aperture in, e.g., a broken anterior tooth to a predetermined depth; providing a fiber optic—preferably of a diameter of between 0.3 and 1 millimeter and elastic modulus of between 22 GPa and 83 GPa—with a length longer than the predetermined depth; placing and adhering the fiber optic within the first aperture so that a portion of the fiber optic is exposed beyond the broken tooth surface; and restoring the broken tooth surface around the exposed fiber optic so that the fiber optic anchors a restored tooth portion to the broken tooth surface. The system also provides a tooth repair pin with the above characteristics, being acid-etched and silane coated with a carrier sleeve.