Teeth are often viewed as static, structural components of the body, but new research out of the University of Pennsylvania suggests they are far more dynamic and diagnostically rich. A recent study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces explores how the physical and biological properties of tooth tissues—specifically enamel and dentin—can reveal insights into rare craniofacial disorders that develop during early childhood.¹
Led by Kyle Vining, DMD, PhD, assistant professor at both Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering, the research team combined methods from materials science, mineralogy, and genetics to map how teeth mineralize and how this process may be disrupted in genetic diseases. Collaborators included investigators from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Penn Medicine, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.
“People often assume that if you understand bone, you understand teeth,” Dr Vining says in a university statement. “But teeth have a different composition, require different analytical tools, and behave differently during development.”
The team studied rodent teeth, focusing on postnatal day-12 mouse molars—selected because enamel has formed by that stage, but the surrounding bone remains soft enough for sectioning. To analyze tooth properties at micro and nanoscale resolution, the researchers used a suite of tools, including nanoindentation (to measure hardness and elasticity), scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy to assess mineral content and structural composition.
The study also involved mouse models of Mendelian genetic disorders, several of which mimic human craniofacial syndromes. By studying these models in conjunction with advanced materials characterization, the researchers are beginning to connect specific genetic mutations with abnormal patterns of mineralization and enamel development.
According to the authors, this foundational work may eventually contribute to diagnostic technologies for detecting enamel defects early in life, or for evaluating treatment outcomes in patients with craniofacial syndromes. The findings may also inspire the design of next-generation dental materials with enhanced resistance to decay.
“This lays the foundation for further studies that could lead to diagnostic tools or even new materials for fillings that prevent decay,” says Dr Vining.
The full study is available in the July 2025 issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Reference
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Jiang Y, Katsura KA, Badt NZ, et al. Integrating materials science and genetics to study postnatal enamel mineralization in mouse molars. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025;17(23):33745–33755. doi:10.1021/acsami.5c08408
