A recent study published in Advanced healthcare materials conducted at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and its incubated start-up Theranautilus reported that nanobots can be used to manipulate the magnetic field to kill bacteria deep inside dental tubules. As root canal treatment is carried out in millions of patients for tooth infections, the problems such as Infected soft tissue have always been a concern.

Shanmukh Srinivas, co-founder of Theranautilus stated that flushing out bacteria residing deep in the tissue is ineffective using the current techniques as they are not effective enough to penetrate their way inside the tubules and kill the bacteria. He added that the study showed that Helical nanobots made of silicon dioxide coated with iron can be used to generate a low-intensity magnetic field that can be injected into tooth samples. This artificially designed device can also be tracked using a microscope. Also, owing to the tweaked frequency of the magnetic field, the nanobots generate heat that can kill the bacteria in the vicinity.

Currently, scientists and healthcare professionals have been using ultrasound or laser pulse to create shock waves in the dental fluid used to flush out bacteria and to improve the root canal treatment success rate. However, the pulse can only penetrate up to 800 micro-meters and their energies dissipate faster in comparison to the new nanobots that can penetrate up to 2000 micro-meters and the relative heat generation caused by changing magnetic fields can kill the bacteria without any added side-effect of harsh chemicals or antibiotics.