Functionalized silk dental floss as a vehicle for delivery of bioactive minerals and ions to the tooth surface.

Purpose: To enable the commercially available silk dental floss to carry a series of desensitizing, alkalizing, and tooth strengthening pharmacons.

Methods: The hydroxy-groups of the serine and tyrosine residues of the commercial silk dental floss were exposed by degumming, and employed as the chemical anchors for the introduction of carboxy-groups to the surface. The affinity of the silk dental floss to a set of bioactive species was studied by SEM, EDS, and XFS.