Polymeric Coatings for Dental Care

The performance demands of dental care products reflect the importance of healthy teeth over the entire span of human life. One approach towards the prevention of dental hypersensitivity, tooth demineralisation and dental caries involves the use of polymeric dental coatings that block dentinal tubules (a key mechanistic strategy in the treatment of dentine hypersensitivity), provide a barrier to the acid-mediated demineralisation of enamel, and also inhibit the bacterial colonisation of teeth. This paper presents the physicochemical principles that govern the molecular design of such polymeric-coating treatments.