Federal Player of the Week: NIST Intern working to prevent cavities and promote healthy teeth

By Partnership for Public Service, Published: August 1

Since her first dental appointment, 19-year old Courtney Keeler has been fascinated with teeth and the science behind keeping them healthy.

(Beamie Young/NIST)

Keeler has now channeled this curiosity as a 2011 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As a fellow, she has been contributing to ongoing research on a dental materials project under the guidance of a NIST scientist.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 40 percent of children ages five to 17 as well as most adults have tooth decay. To treat this disease, dentists are increasingly using polymeric materials in dental fillings. Keeler said that most of these composites must eventually be replaced due to recurrent decay from oral bacteria.
The goal of the NIST research is to provide measurement methods and reference materials to facilitate the rational design of polymeric dental materials, thus enabling improvements in their clinical performance.

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