Hydroxyapatite Consolidated by Zirconia: Applications for Dental Implant

Zirconia has garnered significant attention as a new ceramic material for dental implant due to its excellent biocompatibility, strength, and promoting the oral rehabilitation with high aesthetic, biological and mechanical properties. It also expedites the amelioration of bone minerals surface by its bio-integrative ingredients which are naturally close to ceramic intrinsic of bone. Alternatively, hydroxyapatite (HAp) has prevalently been used in dental implant due to its high biocompatibility. However, it generally shows weak strength and mechanical properties. Consequently, incorporating zirconia and HAp produces appropriate composites for dental implant having improved physiochemical properties. This review provides discussions addressing the methodologies and exemplars for the designed composites used in dental implant applications. The representative methods for surface modification of zirconia incorporating HAp (i.e. sol-gel, hot isostatic pressing, plasma spraying, electrophoretic deposition, etc.) is highlighted. The advantages, disadvantages, biocompatibility, strength, and osseointergration and biointegration properties of the presented composites are explored.