Biomaterials and Application Areas

You may have noticed that the technology in hospitals has developed in recent years. Biomaterials are one of them that used in hospitals for ten years. Today doctors use biomaterials for organ repair, regeneration or beat cancer.

 

Biomaterials don’t react with blood, tissue or any other organs. These are fully compatible with human anatomy and genome. Therefore biomaterials have a huge ease in the sector of medical and biomedical. With the development of polymer technology, first biomaterials used in dentistry followed for to use in cardiovascular surgery. There are two types of biomaterials; natural biomaterials and synthetic(artificial) biomaterials.

Natural biomaterials consist of tissues that are replaced from animal body tissue, same species but tissue is replaced from a dead body(cadaver) or tissue is replaced from same body(autogenic). The autogenic biomaterials are the most useful if we compare them in terms of compliance. However, there is always a risk of infection and incompatibility.

Biometals, bioceramics, and biopolymers are synthetic. These can be in solid, fluid, gel or composite. These biomaterials don’t aim to heal disease, they just support body to recover itself. Thus we understand they are temporary.

In conclusion, biomaterials have an important place in the medical literature and their use may vary. Permanent organs can be produced in the future, however, for now, most of them are temporary.

Eren Altınışık

Biomedical Engineering Student