Things get old.  The longer a material is in the body, the greater chance it will break or cause problems with body.  To solve this problem of broken materials and problems caused, a greater understanding of these workings are needed.

In order for our government to approve implants, they must first go through three stages of testing.  In all of these stages the biocompatibility of the materials is tested, as well as the mechanical properties of the material.  In essence, you cannot place anything in the body and expect it to work.  Testing is needed.

Many problems can occur when foreign materials are introduced into the body:  Failure, Corrosion, Osteolysis, and Arthritis to name a few (more can be found about these subject under the other pages in the bio-compatibility section).  Everything from the Young's Modulus and Ultimate Tensile Strength, to the structure of the material can cause different problems.  The idea of this website is to teach the basic understanding and importance of these materials from a standpoint of of biomaterials.