Biocompatibility is a general term describing the property of a material being compatible with living tissue. Biocompatible materials do not produce a toxic or immunological response when exposed to the body or bodily fluids. Biocompatible materials are central for use in medical implants and prosthetics to avoid rejection by the body tissue and to support harmonious biological functioning. It is notable that the quality of “being biocompatible” can be a grey area, where it is not necessarily a matter of either-or. One material can be more biocompatible than another in a specific application, but both can be classified as biocompatible. For example, if two specific materials are working well as bone-anchored materials, but one of them also heals-in faster to a functional state than the other, we can say that the latter one is more biocompatible.
