Tehran Researchers Invent Novel Maxillofacial Implant Alloy

Investigators in Tehran have used bio ceramic nanostructured materials to modify implant alloys and successfully create biodegradable implants for jaw and face applications. Though the materials have only been produced on a laboratory scale, where used they have sped up the recovery of broken bones, according to a press release by FARS News Agency.

There have been many past attempts to produce biodegradable implants for jaw and face applications so as to eliminate the need for a second surgery to remove the implants. One of the alloys used in implants is magnesium-based. However it has a high corrosion rate that results in the production of hydrogen and degradation of the host tissue.

Researchers found a solution to this problem by coating the magnesium alloy with a diopside coating. They did this through what they called “a plasma anodize/electrical sedimentation of suspended particles method.”

Animal studies showed that the “diopside coating provided all corrosive, bioactivity and bio compatibility properties at the same time at optimized level for the desired magnesium alloy.” In other words, it worked. Results are published in the September issue of Applied Surface Science.