7.21 Biomaterials and their application in craniomaxillofacial surgery

Biomaterials for craniomaxillofacial applications may be derived from purely synthetic materials or from animal or human tissues, and used to preserve, to some degree, native tissue structure, morphology, and esthetics. Their main advantages of synthetic, allo- and xeno- biomaterials are their off-the-shelf availability and lack of donor-site morbidity, which make them invaluable alternatives to autologous tissue reconstruction and augmentation procedures in craniomaxillofacial surgery. The recent decade has been an increasing number of available biomaterials as alternatives to standard reconstruction (eg, autologous bone grafts). This article provides a brief history and overview of biomaterials currently used in craniomaxillofacial bone and soft tissue replacement and augmentation.