Abstract
In the past 20 years, there have been many development in biomaterials and techniques. There are several types of biomaterials made of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. Among them, it has become recently well known that ceramics are successful materials for dental and medical implants because of good biocompatibility. Hydroxyapatite, which is one of bioceramics, was developed as an-epoch-making new biomaterials in Japan during 1971-1973. It was found that the sintered hydroxyapatite has the best osteocompatibility in comparison with previous implant materials in 1975. Since 1975 we have been studied on the crystal structure, physical and chemical properties and tissue reactions, and developed many biomaterials based on hydroxyapatite. For the last ten years, we have vigorously studied the percutaneous device made of hydroxyapatite.
In this presentation, I would like to present our works on hydroxyapatite.
