Development of Improved Dental Restorative Materials

This project aims to increase the service lifetime and utility of photopolymerized dental restoratives by improving the shrinkage characteristics and mechanical properties of resin-based dental composites, which are currently comprised of methacrylate-based resins containing surface-functionalized inorganic filler particles. Ongoing research efforts include the development of thiol-ene and thiol-ene-methacrylate resin systems, as well as the study of new filler surface-modification strategies and novel filler species.