Imagine a material that isn’t just “inert” when placed in the body but helps your body heal. That’s what bioactive glass does. It’s a special kind of glass made using ingredients like silica, calcium, sodium, and phosphate. When used in medical or dental settings, it interacts with body fluids, helps bones grow, fights bacteria, and gradually dissolves in a good way (Bauer, DS.).

What Makes It Useful

Here are some of the reasons why bioactive glass is increasingly being used:

  • Helping Bones Grow & Heal
    When bioactive glass is placed in or near bone, it encourages the bone to attach itself to the material instead of rejecting it. It forms a mineral layer like bone, which helps with bonding (Thomas MV, Puleo DA, Al-Sabbagh M.).
  • Releases Good Ions
    As it dissolves (slowly), bioactive glass releases ions (like calcium and silicon) that seem to stimulate bone cells and help new tissue form (Bauer, DS).
  • Antibacterial / Helps Fight Infection
    Some forms of bioactive glass also make it harder for bacteria to take hold, which is particularly helpful for bone grafts or when an implant is at risk of infection (Wikipedia).
  • Multiple Uses in Dentistry & Bone Repair
    It’s used in dental work (fillings, covering exposed root surfaces, helping teeth stay strong), in repairing bones, and in treating things like bone defects or areas where bone has been removed (Jafari, N., Habashi, M.S., Hashemi, A.).

Opportunities for Bioactive Glass

Bioactive glass isn’t perfect. Here are some of its current drawbacks:

  • Not Very Strong in High‑Stress Areas
    On its own, bioactive glass is brittle. It’s not great in places where there’s a lot of weight or constant load, like in certain load‑bearing bones (Sarin, Srishti; Rekhi, Amit1.).
  • Form & Shape Limits
    Sometimes it’s hard to shape it the way surgeons or dentists want or make it porous but still strong enough. Researchers are working on better manufacturing methods to handle that (News-Medical, 2023).
  • Range of Clinical Uses Is Still Growing
    While many studies and early clinical treatments are promising, not all possible applications (soft tissue healing, drug delivery, etc.) are fully proven in humans yet (Bauer, DS).

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Sources:

  1. Brauer DS. Bioactive glasses —structure and properties. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Mar 27;54(14):4160-81. doi: 10.1002/anie.201405310. Epub 2015 Mar 12. PMID: 25765017.
  2. Thomas MV, Puleo DA, Al-Sabbagh M. Bioactive glass three decades on. J Long Term Eff Med Implants. 2005;15(6):585-97. doi: 10.1615/jlongtermeffmedimplants.v15.i6.20. PMID: 16393127.
  3. Wikipedia contributors. (2024, July 18). Bioactive glass S53P4.
  4. Jafari, N., Habashi, M.S., Hashemi, A. et al. Application of bioactive glasses in various dental fields. Biomater Res 26, 31 (2022).
  5. Sarin, Srishti; Rekhi, Amit1,. Bioactive glass: A potential next generation biomaterial. SRM Journal of Research in Dental Sciences 7(1):p 27-32, Jan–Mar 2016. | DOI: 10.4103/0976-433X.176482
  6. News-Medical. (2023, December 11). Improving healthcare through the use of bioactive glass.