Nanoparticle Robots Remove Biofilm

Regular dental cleaning and routine checkups at the dentist are beneficial to the overall health of the patient. However, this process has not been very high-tech—until now. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have unveiled the use of tiny robots, called nanorobots, able to crawl around and scrape bacterial films from teeth. "The team developed two types of microscopic robots, one of which works on the surface of teeth, while the other can get into very narrow spaces. The robots bring with them catalytic molecules that are able to kill the bacteria within the biofilms, destroy the matrix holding them together, and clean up all the mess left behind," says researcher and professor Hyun (Michel) Koo.¹