Nanotechnology: A New Approach in Dentistry

Nano is derived from the Greek word for 'dwarf. Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter measured in the billionths of meters or manometer, roughly the size of 2 or 3 atoms [1].The growing interest in the future of medical applications of nanotechnology is leading to the emergence of a new field called Nanomedicine [2]. This is the science and technology of diagnosing treating and preventing disease and traumatic injury of relieving pain, and of preserving and improving human health, through the use of nanoscale structured materials, biotechnology and genetic engineering and eventually complex molecular machine system and Nanorobots.Nanotechnology has been developed in many areas of life sciences, such as in dentistry. This presentation provides some examples that illustrate the progress in technological growth, especially in the nanoscale. In the developments of nanotechnology, we are also concerned in many ways about its ethics and the laws of physics. The expansion in nanotechnology shows that much multidisciplinary research is being done in the nanoscale area. In dentistry, one of the examples is research in dental materials such as nanoleakage types in the use of various adhesives with resin composition. Nanodiagnostics are nanotechnology in applied molecular diagnostics. All these fields have applications in diagnostics and in point-of-care hand-held devices