Theodore Eliades

Theodore Eliades, Zurich

CURRICULUM VITAE

Theodore_Eliades Theodore Eliades is Professor and Director of the Clinic of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, as well as Director of Research, and Interim Director of the Institute of Oral Biology at the Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich. He graduated from the School of Dentistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and completed his Orthodontic residency at the Ohio State University with Z. Davidovitch. He earned a Master of Science degree from the Ohio State, a Dr Med Sci from the University of Athens, and a PhD with D.C. Watts from the University of Manchester where he is currently completing a DSc degree. He has published 280 papers and chapters, and edited 12 textbooks, some of which translated into 5 languages. An elected Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Institute of Physics (UK), Prof. Eliades has been Editor-in-Chief of the J Dent Biomech, Associate Editor of the EJO, the AJODO, and the Progress Orthod, Milton Sims Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide and has been offered the 2020 Noel Martin Visiting Chair at the University of Sydney. He has co-supervised or examined 50 theses at 11 Universities from 7 countries on 4 continents. His work has received the Bengt Magnuson prize of the IAPD and 3 WJB Houston research poster awards of the EOS. The area of his expertise includes clinical aspects of materials application and treatment efficiency, biological properties of materials, dental hard tissues and bonding, and mechanics of materials and tissues.

ABSTRACT

The physical chemistry of integument formation on enamel: minimizing the plaque retaining capacity of teeth

When a material is exposed to a biological system, organization of a non-cellular acquired biofilm rapidly occurs on its surface by spontaneous adsorption of extracellular macromolecules composed of glycoproteins and proteoglycans. These films induce a conditioning effect, which modifies the biomaterial surface properties, altering both the response of the subsequently attached cells and the interactions occurring at the biomaterial-host interface. This conditioning effect is based on the differing capacities of artificial surfaces to fractionate proteins from biological fluids, such as saliva, and the ability to induce conformation and orientation changes of adsorbed proteins. The outcome of biofilm adsorption is dependent on the biological fluid flow rate at the site of contact, the type of interfacial interactions involved, and the attachment strength with the substrate. Under static conditions or low flow rates, the biomaterial surface chemistry is the fundamental factor affecting the composition and organization of acquired biofilms, whereas in environments with high flow rates, substrate surface molecular motion and roughness are also important factors. In addition, at long exposure periods, material properties such as porosity, sorption, corrosion, and biodegradation, may further modify the biomaterial-host interactions. The in vivo-ageing pattern of a wide range of orthodontic materials extending from elastomers, and wires to brackets and TADs will be reviewed in the lecture revealing aspects of this pattern, as well as concomitant structural, compositional, surface and mechanical changes. The accompanying clinical implications of these changes will be presented, which primarily relate to the fact that the actual intraoral performance of materials is different from the anticipated one. Lastly, new approaches derived from physical sciences and engineering advances which are utilized to reduce the wettability of surfaces and concomitantly their plaque retaining potential will be presented; this might constitute a decisive step to effectively negate the adverse effect of species precipitation on dental materials.