Editor’s Note
This article marks a significant milestone for Clorovale, reflecting on a decade of market presence and a strategic evolution. As dental materials have advanced, the company has expanded its focus to include producing tips for rotary burs, adapting to the changing needs of prosthetic laboratories.
Almost ten years have passed since Clorovale launched its products on the market. During this period, new materials have been incorporated into dental practice routines – such as resins and ceramic materials that require more efficient tips on rotary burs – and CVD diamond has become more cost-competitive compared to the traditional type. Faced with this new landscape, the company decided to broaden its focus and now also produces tips for rotary burs, used primarily in prosthetic laboratories. The CVD diamond bur costs about 200 reais, while the conventional diamond bur costs around 20.
Clorovale currently manufactures more than 30 models of tips, developed at the request of dentists and dental educators. They are used to remove caries as well as resin and amalgam; in tooth wear, for finishing fillings and even in bone cuts for dental implants, and they have collaborated and inspired the creation of new courses.
The USP of Bauru currently has two courses, one in the area of aesthetic dentistry and another in pediatric dentistry. Other similar courses are taught at the Faculty of Dentistry of USP in São Paulo, at the Faculties of Dentistry of the São Paulo State University (Unesp) in Araraquara and São José dos Campos, both in the interior of São Paulo, and more recently at the Paulista School of Oral Medicine in São Paulo.
In December 2002, the company Clorovale Diamantes, from the city of São José dos Campos in the interior of São Paulo, commercially launched a new line of 30 dental burs with tips coated with synthetic diamond. The main novelty of these burs was that they operate due to vibration generated by ultrasonic waves, freeing patients from the annoying noise of conventional burs that operate by ultra-fast rotation. And the promise of a less painful treatment, without the need for anesthesia in most cases.
Research with synthetic diamond, a dark and opaque material, began in 1991, when Airoldi resumed his work as a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) after completing his postdoctoral studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the U.S. Space Agency (NASA) in Pasadena, California.
At that time, studies with synthetic CVD diamonds were extremely theoretical; there was not yet a precise dimension of what was to come. What was known was that, like natural diamonds, synthetic ones have equivalent physical and chemical properties, such as corrosion resistance, high degree of hardness, lower coefficient of friction between solid materials, higher thermal conductivity, and biological compatibility. Due to these properties, it is used as a solid lubricant in the hinges of satellite solar panels, for example.
Also, because it is a material with higher thermal conductivity than all other known materials and with a wide range of optical transmission, from infrared to X-ray, synthetic diamond can be used in cutting and abrasion tools, surface protectors against chemical corrosion, medical-dental tools, optical protectors, and other applications.
Initially, Airoldi thought of developing synthetic diamonds for the space area, as heat sinks, solid lubricants, and optical protectors. However, due to the wide range of properties of the material, he sought to extend its applications to products used in daily life. The choice of dentistry as the first industrial application for diamond was the result of a strategy that considered the fact that dentists are professionals who appreciate having tools in their offices that make a difference in technological terms, to better serve their patients.