Titanium foam fills gap

Resembling a screw with the texture of human bone, a porous titanium-foam ’root form’ created by researchers at the National Research Council (NRC) in Canada may soon give some solace to individuals with missing teeth.

Licensed in early 2008 to the Toronto-based firm Biomedical Implant Technologies, the novel metal foam could enter the $2bn-a-year dental implant market by next year, depending on the pace of regulatory clearance.

Dr Mislav Pavelic, a Toronto dental surgeon and president of Biomedical Implant Technologies, said: ’NRC’s titanium foam looks like a metallic version of bone. There is nothing else currently on the dental implant market that matches its porosity - nothing that mimics bone this closely and that would allow bone and titanium to integrate.’

Developed at the NRC Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI) in Boucherville, Quebec, the titanium foam is made by mixing titanium powder with a polymer, and then adding foaming agents that expand the polymer when heated. Later, through a high-temperature heat treatment, the polymer is removed and the titanium particles are consolidated to provide mechanical strength to the porous structure.