“We have found that what nature gave us is hard to improve on, let alone replicate,” said Caroline Szczepanski, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and director of MSU’s Szczepanski Research Group.
In her lab, Szczepanski and her students conduct polymer research. Since scientists haven’t been able to duplicate the structure of a tooth, the group looks for “out of the box” ideas to mimic the complex bone structure of the mouth.
Statistics show it’s a dentistry project worth pursuing. More than 90 percent of American adults need a filling at some point, and in 2019, replacing failed fillings was a $5 billion industry.
“If you’ve ever had to get a replacement filling because there’s a crack in it or it is wiggling around, that’s what we’re working on here at MSU—reducing that rate of failure and the lifetime of the initial filling,” Szczepanski said.
