Bioactive ceramics: Cements

Bioactive cements that show both self-setting ability and bioactivity or osteoconductivity are useful for reconstruction of bone defect, since the defect would be reconstructed with the bioactive materials such as hydroxyapatite and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate without keeping a gap between the materials and bone. In contrast to the reconstruction of bone defect with granules, hardened cement will be fixed at the bone defect due to their self-setting ability. Basic setting mechanism of the bioactive cement is dissolution-precipitation reaction and interlocking of the precipitated crystals. Properties of the several bioactive cement are also introduced in this chapter.