An ultrasonic toothbrush can be used to detonate “microbombs” in toothpaste Vesna Andjic/iStockphoto/Getty Images
Bacteria that cause tooth decay could be blasted away by microscopic “bombs” detonated with an ultrasonic toothbrush.
Ultrasound can cause some liquids, such as perfluorohexane (PFH), to rapidly expand and turn to gas. Some researchers have explored using tiny degradable capsules containing these liquids to deliver drugs inside the body or to blast away cancerous tumours.
Now, Xian-Zheng Zhang at Wuhan University in China and his colleagues have developed PFH-containing capsules designed to destroy biofilms – aggregations of microbes on a surface – which are…
