Evaluation of the micromechanical elastic properties of potential bone-grafting materials.

The micromechanical elastic properties of potential bone-graft materials were compared with that of the human mandible. Six different potential bone-replacement materials were used: Bio-Oss (Osteohealth), OsteoGraf/N-700 (Ceramed), Pepgen P15 (Ceramed), Interpore200 (Interpore Cross International), Allogro (Ceramed), and Dynagraft (GenSci Dental). As a control, mandibular cortical bone was obtained from a 17-year-old woman. Micromechanical elastic property analysis was obtained with the use of a UH3 scanning acoustic microscope (Olympus Co., Tokyo, Japan) (SAM) at 400 MHz in the burst mode. Each sample was measured at three areas. The data were analyzed statistically by SPSS (SPSS, Inc.) with the use of the Student t test. In human bone, the reflection coefficients r of the x dimension (r = 0.75 +/- 0.01) was statistically higher than those of the y (0.72 +/- 0.05) and the z (0.72 +/- 0.01) directions. The order of stiffness magnitude was found to be Pepgen (r = 0.73 +/- 0.05) >/= OsteoGraf (0.72 +/- 0.03) > Bio-Oss (0.71 +/- 0.02) > Interpore (0.69 +/- 0.10) > Dynagraft (0.43 +/- 0.05) > Allogro (0.36 +/- 0.04). For these samples, Interpore alone showed a large deviation in properties in the same specimen. With regard to the elastic properties solely, bone-grafting materials made from bovine or processed marine coral appear to be reasonable choices as graft materials.