Chapter 19 Nanodiagnostics in microbiology and dentistry

Subramani, Karthikeyan; Mehta, Manjula

Abstract Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. The term “nanotechnology” is now commonly used to refer to the creation of new objects with nanoscale dimensions between 1 and 100nm. Functionalities can be added to nanomaterials by interfacing them with biological molecules or structures. The integration of nanomaterials with biology has led to the development of diagnostic devices, contrast agents, analytical tools, and drug-delivery vehicles. Many diseases that do not have a cure today may be cured by nanotechnology in the future. Nanoscience does have an impact on several areas of microbiology. It allows for the study and visualization at the molecular assembly level of a biological process. More studies are needed to determine the environmental and health risks associated with nanomaterials. The current crossdisciplinary inclinations of dental research groups to the nanotechnological field, altogether with the major investments aimed toward developing the methods to grow tooth structures artificially by soft chemical approaches and to understand the mechanism for remineralization of dental defects at various scales in vivo, certainly present a promising trend. Nevertheless, the pace of application of nanotechnology to dentistry has been less than revolutionary. Scientists believe that nanotechnology could give man a better quality of life, power to prevent diseases, speed up tissue reconstruction, and alter his genetic sequence in the future. “There is plenty of room at the bottom.”