ABSTRACT
A strong interest in the use of ceramics for biomedical engineering applications developed in the late 1960’s, exemplified by the work of Hulbert and co-workers (Hulbert et al. 1982-83). Although that interest reached a plateau during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, there is now an increased pace of activity in the field of bioceramics. Good examples have been provided recently by various symposia on bioceramics held in a variety of international venues (Bonfield, Hastings, and Tanner 1991; Ravaglioli and Krajewski 1992; Fishman, Clare, and Hench 1995). The development of ceramic material applications in biomedicine has concentrated mostly in orthopaedics and dentistry. Orthopaedic bioceramics provide the advantage of chemical similarity to natural skeletal materials. As with orthopaedic materials, dental applications for ceramics are attractive due to the chemical similarity between engineered ceramics and natural dental materials. In addition, a predominance of compressive loads are present for which ceramics provide their optimal mechanical performance. On the other hand, the mechanical loading for orthopaedic applications tends to include substantial tensile stress components.
