ABSTRACT
The selection and use of implant materials involve important prospective decisions. Each material has specic combinations and ranges of chemical, mechanical, electrical, thermal, and biologic performance characteristics. Design requirements dictate materials choices; however, once materials choices are made, they strongly affect the design process in both positive and negative ways. If there were a single “best implant material,” then all devices would be made from it. There is no such thing; to make all devices from the same material would be like asking a painter to work with only one color of paint. There are classes and groups of materials with similar properties, and within each group different choices may be made of composition and of processing techniques, to yield different combinations of nal properties.
