Dental enamel exhibits outstanding toughness, wear resistance, and stability thanks to its unique well-defined hierarchical mineralized structure. Once lost, this tissue cannot be regenerated and is directly related to problems such as dental caries and dentine hypersensitivity, which affects an astonishing 35% and 52% of the world population. Current alternatives to repair enamel tend to lack the anisotropic nature and structural integrity of the natural tissue, which lead to surface mismatch, fractures, rocking of restorations, marginal damage and leakage, and loss of dental tissues. Therefore, there is great need to find more efficient cost-effective ways to treat lesions and diseases of dental tissues. This ERC PoC project aimed to develop a material that can mimic human dental enamel in its chemical composition and physical properties and that can be used to repair and regenerate dental enamel complications. We have developed a protein-based material that is able to trigger and guide the growth of calcium phosphate (apatite) crystals over large and uneven surfaces creating a thin coating that recreates aspects of the native enamel tissue. The material exhibits properties that are key for an enamel-repair/regeneration therapy such as the capacity to grow up to controlled sizes, dense and hierarchical crystal organization, high stiffness, and acid resistance similar to enamel. While challenges remain for its therapeutic use, the project has helped made important progress towards its potential translation.
