ALEJANDRO ARNAU

Dra. Raquel Osorio

  • Licenciado en Odontología. Universidad de Granada. 1991.
    • Premio Extraordinario de Licenciatura.
    • Primer Premio Nacional de Terminación de Estudios (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia).
  • Doctor en Odontología. Universidad de Granada. 1993.
  • Profesor de la Facultad Odontología. Universidad de Granada, desde 1990. Categoría actual: Catedrático de Universidad.
  • Académico de Número de La Real Academia de Medicina y Cirugía de Andalucía Oriental (2012).
  • Con actividad investigadora centrada en Biomateriales: hemos participado en 15 Proyectos obtenidos en convocatorias competitivas y producido 255 publicaciones científicas en revistas listadas en JCR.
  • Como autor el ‘índice h’ o factor de Hirsch asociado es de 56.
  • Numerosas comunicaciones y ponencias invitadas en Congresos.
  • Editor Asociado de las revistas Clinical Oral Investigations, American Journal of Dentistry, Medicina Oral, Patología Oral y Cirugía Bucal y Journal of Dentistry.

Ponencia:

Nanopolymers for treating oral chronic inflammatory diseases

Resumen:

Endodontic treatment is performed trying to prevent or treat apical periodontitis. Apical periodontitis refers to diverse periapical inflammatory processes occurring in response to micro-organisms within the tooth root canal system. Therefore, the treatment is based on the elimination of the bacterial challenge. However, this therapy is not always predictable and it is estimated that in the treatment of periapical infections, the failure rate in primary root canal treatments ranges between 14 to 16%, being these failures mainly attributed to persistence of intra-radicular infection. In the study of tooth specimens with apical periodontitis, the prevalence of intra-radicular biofilms has been published to be about 80% in untreated root canals and 74% in treated ones. It may therefore be necessary to implement some adjunctive procedures to the used antibacterial strategies.

One of these strategies is the use of nanopolymers. These biomaterials can be shaped as particles having a high reactivity and a high surface-to-volume ratio, what permits their doping with different active agents. Besides doping with an active drug, the nanomaterials can be constructed with controlled drug release and drug bioavailability enhancement capabilities for superior efficacy. Active agents should include not only antibacterials, but also some newly developed anti-inflammatory and pro-regenerative drugs, aiding in the control of these multifactorial diseases.