Personalized anesthetic patches for dental applications

Abstract

Topical anesthetics are widely used in dental procedures. However, most commercially available medications are in the form of liquid or semisolid, which cannot provide prolonged effect intraorally. To address this issue, we proposed the use of three-dimensional printing (3DP) to fabricate a customizable dental anesthetic patch loaded with lidocaine that can be fitted perfectly onto the affected tooth. It has been shown that that patch can adhere on the tooth for more than 1 h, while releasing lidocaine from the patch made of hydrogels. In addition, the results illustrated the possibility of controlling the drug release profile by altering the shape of the patch, as well the use of a 3DP tooth model as the drug testing platform. Taken together, these data further reinforce the vast potential of the application of 3DP technology in personalized medicine.

Keywords: Adhesive; Dental patch; Drug release; Personalized medicine; Three-dimensional printing; Topical anesthetics.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of the generation of the three-dimensional (3D)-printed tooth model. Use of the 3D-printed tooth model as (a) drug testing platform and (b) for generation of personalized patches which can be loaded with lidocaine for anesthesia.

Figure 2

The computer-aided design file of the tooth model for three-dimensional printing and the final printed tooth model.

Figure 3

The computer-aided design of patch molds for (A) 2-tooth model and (B) 3-tooth model for three-dimensional printing and their respective final products.

Figure 4

Adhesion and fitting test of the respective patches, (A) 2-tooth model and (B) 3-tooth model (Time [T] is in min). (The yellow color rod was used to keep the printed tooth model inside the liquid).

Figure 5

In vitro drug release profile: (A) The cumulative amount and (B) percentage release, for the 2-tooth model (blue) and 3-tooth model (red), respectively. The insets show the first 5 min of the release study; the difference in the rate of dissolution between the two patches was significant (P<0.01).