Dentistry has always been dependent on the advances of science and engineering for improvement of methods and procedures. The search for desirable preventive, corrective, and restorative dental materials, because of the exacting requirements that are demanded for this application, has necessarily been restricted to a limited class of materials. Dentistry led the health science field in taking advantage of the rapidly expanding family of polymeric materials that have been developed over the years in the United States and abroad. The volume of dental resins used is insignificant compared to the total consumption of plastics. Yet, the impact of scientists working on dental problems has done much to increase the usefulness of macromolecular materials. Examples of such research are epoxy resins, which were first synthesized by Pierre Castan in the laboratories of a Swiss dental manufacturer; amine-peroxide systems specially developed to obtain rapid-curing, chemically activated dental resins which are now widely used in the cure of polyester resins; and self- curing acrylic resins which have found diverse applications as cements in orthopedic and neurosuigical techniques.