A new glass-ceramic for bone replacement: evaluation of its bonding to bone tissue

Glass powders (350 mesh) of the composition MgO, 4.6; CaO, 44.9; SiO, 34.2; PO, 16.3; CaF, 0.5 in weight ratio were compacted, heated to 1050 degrees C at a rate of 5 degrees C/min and kept at 1050 degrees C for 2 h. The resultant glass-ceramic having oxyapatite, fluoroapatite, and wollastonite crystals showed high bending and compressive strengths of 157 and 1060 MPa, respectively. The biocompatibility and bonding ability of this new glass-ceramic to the bone tissue was evaluated using rabbit tibial bones, and the failure load to break the bonding of several ceramics (the new glass-ceramic, dense hydroxyapatite, 45S5 Bioglass, alumina-ceramic) to bone tissues was measured. The new glass-ceramic showed tight bonding to bone comparable with dense hydroxyapatite, and in 25 weeks its load was 70% of that of bone tissue.