Shape-Memory Polymers in Dentistry: Systematic Review and Patent Landscape Report

Objective

To perform a Systematic Review (SR) of all existing literature and a Patent Landscape Report (PLR) regarding the potential applications of Shape-Memory Polymers (SMPs) in dentistry.

Search strategy

Clinical and Biomedical online databases (Pubmed, Medline/Embase, Scopus, LILACS, Web of Science), Materials Science and Engineering databases (IEEE Explore, Compendexand Proquest), Material Science and Chemical database (Reaxys) so as Patents databases (Questel-Orbit, Espacenet, Patentscope) were consulted as recently as January 2019 to identify all peer-reviewed papers and patents potentially relevant to the review.

Results

After duplicate selection and extraction procedures, 6 relevant full-texts articles from the initial 292 and 45 relevant patents from 497 were selected. A Modified CONSORT checklist of 14 items for reporting pre-clinical in-vitro studies was used to rate the methodological quality of the selected papers. The overall quality was judged low.

Conclusions

It was possible to achieve a scientific and technological overview of the use of Shape-Memory Polymers in dentistry. Emphasis is given to the versatility of this class of materials underlining their limitless possibilities. These findings indicate that SMPs are promising materials in dentistry, suggesting the importance of furtherly pursuing this line of research.