Biocompatibility: a review

Introduction: Biocompatibility is fundamentally important to ensure the health of patients, dental staff members (including laboratory personnel) and practitioners themselves. Furthermore, the legal liability of dentists is often linked to biocompatibility issues. Practitioners should understand enough about biocompatibility testing methods to critically judge advertising claims and ask relevant questions of manufacturers. Data: Articles from 1942-2014 were studied and relevant articles were included in this review. Sources: The PubMed database search revealed that the reference list for biocompatibility of dental materials featured 1965 articles. A forward search was undertaken on selected articles, author names and contemporary dental material text. Study selection: Only articles on biocompatibility of commonly used dental materials were included. Review articles on biocompatibility were included. Articles from 1942-2009 (Oct 2014) were considered. Conclusions: Ultimately, each dentist must determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks for the patient under consideration. To avoid all risk is to deny the patient the tremendous benefits that materials have to offer.