FAQ's on BioCeramics and Bioactive Coatings

Bio Ceramics - Meaning and properties

Ceramics used for the repair and reconstruction of diseased or damaged musculo-skeletal tissues are termed as bio-ceramics, which may be further classified according to their reactivity as bio-inert (e.g. alumina and zirconia), resorbable (e.g. tricalcium phosphate), bioactive e.g. hydroxyapatite, bioactive glasses, and glass-ceramics), or porous for tissue ingrowth (e.g. bioactive glass or hydroxyapatite porous bone fillers and scaffolds).

Bio-ceramics - Usage of

Bio-ceramics are used in replacements of hips, knees, teeth, fingers, tendons, ligaments and repair for periodontal disease, maxillofacial reconstruction, augmentation and stabilization of the jaw-bone, spinal fusion, and bone repair after tumor surgery.

Metallic Implants - Benefit of Bioactive Coatings thereon.

Metallic implants (stainless steel, titanium and its alloy (Ti6Al4V) are widely used as load bearing orthopaedic, dental implants and plastic surgery. However, being bio-inert, they suffer from unfavourable bioactive fixation with the surrounding hard tissues which limits their effective service life. Therefore, they are often coated with bioactive materials such as hydroxyapatite (HAp), bioactive glass, etc by various techniques to enable cementless fixation and to improve their integration to the adjacent hard or soft tissues.

What are the generally available Bioactive Coating materials.

Metallic load bearing implants are often coated with bioactive materials such as hydroxyapatite (HAp), bioactive glass and other bioactive coatings by various techniques to improve their surface bioactivity and adherence to the adjacent hard tissues and to enable cementless fixation.