Dimensionally Engineered Nanotherapeutics for Pulpitis and Periodontitis: From Structural Design to Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Precision Therapy.

Abstract

Pulpitis (Pul) and periodontitis (PD) are oral infectious diseases with extremely high global prevalence. These pathologies can induce severe pain, significantly elevate the risk of tooth mobility and eventual tooth loss, and have been confirmed to be closely correlated with multiple chronic systemic disorders including diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Conventional clinical interventions for these diseases are frequently characterized by incomplete debridement and inefficient drug delivery. Additionally, the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance presents an ongoing challenge for traditional treatments, leading to overall unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes. Nanomaterials offer an innovative approach to overcoming the aforementioned limitations of conventional treatments, owing to their distinctive physicochemical properties, intrinsic antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, as well as their ability to facilitate bone and cementum regeneration. However, the development of nanotherapeutics for Pul and PD currently remains inefficient. Most existing nanomaterial systems exhibit poor adaptability to the complex oral microenvironment, and are unable to achieve closed-loop dynamic regulation during the entire therapeutic process. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought unprecedented new opportunities to resolve these bottlenecks. By enabling an intelligent "sense-analyze-respond" feedback loop, AI can optimize the key performance parameters of nanomaterials and facilitate dynamic adjustment of clinical therapeutic regimens. This review firstly sorts out the pathogenesis of Pul and PD, as well as the corresponding targeted intervention strategies enabled by nanomaterials. Subsequently, the existing nanomaterial systems are categorized based on their dimensional classification (0D to 3D), and their therapeutic applications and current limitations in the treatment of both diseases are analyzed. Finally, this paper discusses the research prospects of AI-enabled nanomaterials in structural design and in the management of Pul and PD. This review aims to provide theoretical reference for the development of more precise and effective therapeutic strategies for these two prevalent oral diseases.