Nanotechnology – A new era in prosthetic dentistry

Human quest for knowledge has led us to myriad of innovations in the field of science to that extent that the future era is of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an emerging field of science dealing with the research at the nanoscale. It has been shown that the performances of many biomaterials used in prosthodontics have been significantly enhanced after their scales were reduced by nanotechnology, from micron-size into nanosize. On the other hand, many nanocomposites composed of nanomaterials and traditional metals, ceramics, resin or other matrix materials have been widely used in prosthodontics because their properties, such as modulus of elasticity, surface hardness, polymerization shrinkage and filler loading were significantly improved after the addition of the nanomaterials. This article aims to review all the applications of nanotechnology in the prosthodontics.