A. de la Isla (a), W. Brostow(a,b), B. Bujard(a), M. Estevez(b), J. R. Rodriguez(b), S. Vargas(b), V. M. Castano(a,b)

(a) Laboratory of Advanced Polymers and Optimized Materials (LAPOM), Department of Materials Science, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5310, USA; and Department of Physics, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA; brostow@unt.edu
(b) Centro de Fisica Aplicada y Tecnologia Avanzada (CFATA), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apartado Postal 1-1010, Queretaro, Qro. 76000, Mexico

ABSTRACT

We cover teeth surfaces with nanohybrid coatings containing an inorganic ceramic and an organic copolymer constituents. We report the first ever values of scratch penetration depth and scratch recovery for bare and coated teeth. We find that uncoated teeth undergo viscoelastic recovery (healing) after microscratching - the first manifestation of bone viscoelasticity in tribology. The coatings fill "valleys" in teeth surfaces. In each case a large improvement in the scratch resistance as compared to uncoated teeth is seen. The extent of the improvement depends on the inorganic/organic component ratios in the nanohybrids.