New techniques improve success.

Each year, almost 500,000 patients receive hip implants worldwide, about the same number need bone reconstruction due to injuries or congenital defects, and 16,000,000 Americans lose teeth and may require dental implants. While available implants can alleviate excruciating pain and allow patients to live more active lives, there often are problems getting bone to attach to the metal devices. Small gaps between natural bone and the implant can increase over time, requiring the need for additional surgery to replace the implant.

Long-lasting implants that can attach permanently to bone could save many patients the pain, risk, and expense of undergoing repeat surgeries. Scientists are researching new technologies and materials that, together, promise to make bone, joint, and tooth implants almost as good as nature's own version. This research is based on a unique combination of four breakthrough technologies: a wear-resistant metal alloy, a new method to create pores and channels in metal, a new way to make bone-like mineral coatings on implants, and natural protein factors that cause bone regeneration.

Two of the technologies were developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers. By observing how shells, bone, and teeth are formed, scientists developed a process for depositing a bone-like mineral on the implant surface. The process "grows" the material onto the implant from a water-based solution, creating a biocompatible surface for the newly forming bone that can reduce...