Center For Dental Materials

This unique branch innovates high-quality indigenous materials and supports undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students in various specialties of dentistry and medicine. We aim to develop world-class research facilities and activities for testing all dental and other biomaterials used for candidates from Yenepoya University and institutions in neighboring research fields.

The Science of Dental Materials is an applied basic science dealing with the materials' physical, chemical, and biological properties that affect tissue compatibility and general biological safety with manipulation and handling techniques.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Experienced Faculty
The faculty includes a team of experienced and dedicated teachers with Ph.D. qualifications who arrange academic activities that are directed to obtain socially committed, professionally dedicated, technically and intellectually competent, research-oriented dental clinicians and technicians.
Infrastructure Facilities
The department has a well-equipped laboratory(800 sq.ft ) and seminar hall (120 capacity), a mechanical testing laboratory with a Universal testing machine (UTM), and Surface Hardness Tester (VHN), Planetary Ball Milling Machine, Humidity Chamber, Muffle Furnace, Metallurgical Polishing Machine, Autoclave, etc.

Dept. has a unique dental materials museum Established in 1999 to provide dental education to our students and to showcase all the dental materials and dental equipment.
Comprehensive Curriculum
Generally, the undergraduate coursework spreads over two years, including theory and practical sessions with add-on projects culminating in a final university examination at the end of the second year. To meet contemporary education standards and facilitate knowledge at a professional level, the department acquires various teaching strategies such as lectures on multimedia, video demonstration, yengage online activities, tutorials, practicals, early clinical exposure, routine assessment tests, etc.
Clinical Training
Students receive extensive early clinical exposure with various clinical departments to apply the application parts of different dental materials manipulated in pre-clinical classes.
Research Opportunities
Students are encouraged to participate in research activities such as ICMR STS projects and provide hands-on training in Mechanical testing equipment such as Universal Testing Machine (UTM) and Surface Hardness Tester (VHN). We also support and assist postgraduate students, Ph.D. Candidate of our and other universities in Research Projects.
Continuing Education
Conducting hands-on workshops related to properties related materials used in dentistry. The subject provides an insight into dental materials used in clinical dentistry and covers the underlying principles of their functional properties, bioactivity, and biocompatibility. We regularly work to understand and evaluate the claims of dental material manufacturers' data for products that satisfy our clinical needs.

PROGRAMS OFFERED

B.D.S : Bachelor of Dental Surgery

Faculty

Dr. Jayaprakash K

Reader & Incharge H.O.D.

MSc, Ph.D

Dr. BT Nandish

Professor

MSc, Ph.D

Dr. Sowmya

Reader

MSc, Ph.D

Dr. Sinan

Tutor

BDS

Identifying new research area in Dept of Dental Materials

Thrust areas of Research	Description (in words) (Describe the local and regional needs that led to the thrust areas of research)
Dental Biomaterials	Detailed research in this area helps to understand the material properties before the clinical applications
Polymers	Widely used materials in dentistry further modification required to improve its thermal and mechanical properties
Antimicrobial monomers	These agents exhibits long- lasting broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and considered as one of the most suitable antimicrobial agents to combat various dental infections such as denture stomatitis, dental caries and periodontal diseases etc.
Metallurgy	Recycling of metals and alloys are important areas to save the natural resources and rare earth metals
Mechanical - strength and Hardness testing	Through knowledge about the mechanical properties of various dental materials helps to understand and select the best suitable materials for various clinical situations

Unique Museum of Dental Materials

There are museums in every branch of science and technologies as well as in many other fields of fine arts, sculpture, etc., serving the societies in acquisition of deeper knowledge. However, no serious attempts have been made to establish such museums in dental sciences.

The aim of developing this unique museum is to create awareness of the importance of the museums in the dental institutions and to provide resource for research in different specialties.

The “Museum of Dental Materials”, established in 1999, it is our unique education medium for providing dental education to our students and to showcase all the dental material and dental equipments.

The objective is to expose our unique experiences in this area which helped the students to improve their knowledge of the dental sciences and the public dental health awareness.

The methods adopted were collection of large numbers of samples, fabrications of models, charts, etc., for teaching curriculum and public education and presenting them with suitable classifications. Results of this vast effort and pains taken are very much appreciated and encouraged by the visiting dentists, dignitaries, school children, and the public.

Museums of dental materials should be inseparable parts of the dental teaching institutions and are very essential for the dental students and educating the societies on dental health awareness.

Recently a separate section on skulls and teeth of animals has been developed which is helpful to establish specialty course in Veterinary Dentistry.

Reference

B. H. Sripathi Rao , V. Shama Bhat , B. T. Nandish, K. Jayaprakash, Sowmya Rao. Museums of Materials Used in Dentistry: Our Experience and Literature Review. Arch Med Health Sci . 2016;4:267-70.

External view of Museum of Dental Materials and Animal Skulls and Teeth