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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 7 January 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. The report reviews biomaterials used in medicine, including silicones, Teflon, biodegradable polymers, hydrogels, titanium, ceramics and tissue constructs, and applications such as stents, joints, contact lenses, drug delivery and dialysis. It concludes that most innovation lies in new ways to apply existing materials.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 1/7/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD is a broad survey of biomaterials, including metals, polymers, ceramics, glasses, and composites designed to interact with living tissue, and argues that their value depends mainly on biocompatibility, reliability, and careful matching of material properties to specific medical uses. The report reviews major application areas including biosensors, implants, cardiovascular devices, contact lenses, drug delivery systems, tissue constructs, titanium devices, and dialysis membranes, emphasizing that no single biomaterial works best in every setting. Its overall conclusion is that biomaterials are already foundational to a large medical-device industry and save or improve millions of lives, but that progress tends to be slow because safety testing is stringent; as a result, most advances come from improved ways of applying established materials such as silicone, Teflon, biodegradable polymers, ceramics, and titanium in new devices and clinical settings rather than from radically new substances.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFICIAL USE Oilti an increase in the interfacial area between the implant and the tissues. This tissue ingrowth results in an increased resistance to device movement within the tissue . As in natural bone, proteins adsorb to the calcium phosphate surface to provide the critical intervening layer through which the bone cells interact with the implanted biomaterial. Figure 17 shows an example of this. DENTAL CERAMICS Dental ceramics are a major subclass of biomaterials. Porcelains are hard ceramic materials that are based on a glass of silica and alumina, with fluxes used to lower their fusion temperature. Dental porcelains can have a hardness that exceeds that of the enamel of natural teeth, but they are often more brittle and more likely to fracture. They also do not have the same optical properties, thermal conductivity, or natural fluorescence as biological materials. Full-porcelain (ceramic) dental materials include porcelain, ceramic, or glasslike fillings and crowns (a metal-free option known as a jacket crown). They are used as inlays, onlays, crowns, and aesthetic veneers. A veneer is a very thin shell of porcelain that can replace or partially cover tooth enamel. Full-porcelain (ceramic) restorations are particularly desirable because their color and translucency mimic natural tooth enamel. Zirconium oxide is a very strong and refractory material that has recently appeared as a dental material. With a three-point bending strength exceeding 900 megapascals, zirconium oxide is expected to be applicable to many new applications in dentistry, including bridges, implant suprastructures, and root dowel pins . Casting the shape of a broken tooth into a natural shape or one that resembles the fragment of the broken tooth is greatly facilitated by the use of computerized CAD/CAM technologies. These technologies are used to make molds for the casting of dental ceramics. Figure 18 illustrates natural-looking teeth made from dental porcelains defined by a computer-generated mold. TISSUE CONSTRUCTS AS Figure 18. Computer-Based Sculpted Ceramic Teeth BIOMATERIALS Living tissues are sometimes considered biomaterials if they have been cultured prior to application to the human body or utilized much the same way as a synthetic material would be utilized. The formation of living tissues into constructs is sometimes called tissue engineering. This is a bit of a misnomer in that it is an advanced form of cell culture and cellular biology and has little in common with eng ineering in the classical sense of application of mathematics and physics to problems. Rather, tissue engineering is the application of biological and cell cu lturing techniques to encourage the growth of tissues in certain ways and in the development of viable substitutes that restore and maintain the function of human tissues . This is a form of UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFICIO! 1!SE ON! X 13
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