Standardization

NIOM has for many years contributed to standardization at an international level both through the International organization for Standardization (ISO) and within Europe through the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN). Development of new standards and revision of existing standards have been the main focus. Standards in dentistry set requirements for the properties of dental materials and dental instrumentation, and prescribe procedures for the testing of dental materials. Participation in standardization work for dental products and for biocompatibility in general allows us to have an influence on test methods and requirements for dental products. NIOM has had, and still has, a major impact on the selection of methodology and requirements of the dental product standards, and the requirements are often based on results from research activities at NIOM.

International standardization is organized in different Technical Committees (TC), each dealing with a specific field of interest. Each committee is again divided into smaller subcommittees and working groups devoted to different topics of the field. Scientists from the institute are technical experts and conveners of working groups within the following technical committees (TC): ISO/TC 106 Dentistry, ISO/TC 194 Biocompatibility of medical devices, CEN/TC 55 Dentistry, and CEN/TC 206 Biocompatibility of medical and dental materials and devices. Standards Norway (SN) is the national member body in the European and International standarization organizations.