A Scoping Review on the Advent of Microfluidic Devices in Dentistry

Microfluidics devices have garnered significant attention in response to animal rights concerns and due to faithful replication of in vivo conditions. In the realm of materials characterization, these chips offer the means to assess cell cytotoxicity and biocompatibility, effectively emulating the cellular microenvironment. Notably, there was a substantial temporal gap, roughly 16 years, between the first organ-on-a-chip (OOC) from the technology in the late 1990s and the development of the first dental microfluidic chip. To provide clarity on their usage, we classify dental microfluidic chips into distinct generations. Additionally, we present an overview of recent dental materials tested on chips over the past 5 years to examine the advantages and disadvantages of disposable materials for chip production, and address the limitations and challenges facing the dental research community.

Recent studies have explored the application of microfluidics in dental materials and in particular adhesives, including HEMA, acid phosphoric, Adper Scotch bond, SE BOND, silver diamine fluoride, silicate cement, EDTA-chitosan, and emerging regenerative drugs. PDMS and PMMA are the primary materials choice for chip manufacturing, with a bottom-up approach often selected for cell injection.

The use of microfluidics for dental research is categorized into generations, but a disparity exists between prototype standardization and result validation.