ABSTRACT
Calcium Orthophosphates: Applications in Nature, Biology, and Medicine Sergey Dorozhkin Copyright © 2012 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. ISBN 978-981-4316-62-0 (Hardcover), 978-981-4364-17-1 (eBook) www.panstanford.com
in the forms of powders, granules and/or coatings. An expansion of bioceramics to the health care has been characterized by a significant increasing in the number of publications and patents in this field and an ever-increasing number of major international conferences and themed meetings [2-6]. Interestingly, but the chemical elements used to manufacture bioceramics form just a small set of the Periodic Table. Namely, bioceramics might be prepared from alumina, zirconia, magnesia, carbon, silica-contained and calcium-contained compounds, as well as some other chemicals [4]; however, this chapter is further limited to calcium orthophosphates only. Calcium orthophosphate-based biomaterials and bioceramics are now used in a number of different applications throughout the body, covering all areas of the skeleton. Applications include dental implants, percutaneous devices and use in periodontal treatment, healing of bone defects, fracture treatment, total joint replacement (bone augmentation), orthopedics, cranio-maxillofacial reconstruction, otolaryngology, ophthalmology and spinal surgery [3-7]. Depending upon the required properties, different calcium orthophosphates might be used. For example, Fig. 4.1 shows some randomly chosen samples of the commercially available calcium orthophosphate bioceramics for bone graft applications.
