Nanohybrid scratch resistant coatings for teeth and bone viscoelasticity manifested in tribology

We cover teeth surfaces with nanohybrid coatings containing an inorganic ceramic and an organic copolymer constituents. We report the first ever values of scratch penetration depth and scratch recovery for bare and coated teeth. We find that uncoated teeth undergo viscoelastic recovery (healing) after microscratching - the first manifestation of bone viscoelasticity in tribology. The coatings fill valleys in teeth surfaces. In each case a large improvement in the scratch resistance as compared to uncoated teeth is seen. The extent of the improvement depends on the inorganic/organic component ratios in the nanohybrids.