"Smart Coating"

There is a new “smart coating” that contains nanosilver particles. This coating helps implants adhere closer to bone and protect against infection. Some patients that have replacement surgery, their body will reject the implant. The “smart coating” helps address this problem by allowing the bone to grow into the implant without breaking the bone. “The coating creates a crystalline layer next to the implant and a mostly amorphous outer layer that touches the surrounding bone”. The outer layer dissolves over time. When the outer layer dissolves, it releases calcium and phosphate. This helps encourage bone growth. The bone will grow into the implant as the outer layer touching the bone dissolves. This will result in enhanced bonding between the implant and the bone. The “smart coating” also helps make the implant more functional because the implant and the bone will share the load equally.

They can also change the rate that the outer layer dissolves. They want this rate to equal the rate of the patient’s bone growth. This is imperative because different people will have different bone growth rates. For example, a younger person’s bones will grow a lot quicker than an elderly person.

The silver nanoparticles in the “smart coating” are “antimicrobial” as the outer layer dissolves. With the “smart coating”, patients will not have to take a large quantity of antibiotics to help prevent infection from occurring right after surgery. The silver nanoparticles will also help prevent infection at the location of the implant for as long as the implant is used. This is significant because after normal implantation, the location of the implant will constantly be susceptible to infection. There is a higher chance of infection occurring right after surgery. Therefore, more silver is secreted right after surgery. This is because of the outer layer dissolving faster. When the patient is healing, the silver secretion slows down.

This smart coating is bioactive because it is a material that forces a tissue response. The researchers understand what triggers the cells to react as they would like. The researchers also know what activity they are trying to encourage. These are all important characteristics for a material to be considered bioactive. This smart coating will help patients in the future to have safer hip, knee, and dental implants. I find this topic very interesting because inventions like “smart coating” will help change people’s lives using biomedical engineering.


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