Bioceramics: From Clinic to Concept

It’s been over 25 years since Professor Larry Hench published his seminal article entitled “Bioceramics: From Concept to Clinic”[1] and more than 40 years since he first reported the peculiar bioactive properties of glass compositions within the Na2O-CaO-P2O5-SiO2 quaternary system [2]. Curiously, the investigative ideas which led him to develop Bioglass® did not have their origin in the laboratory. They were born from the clinical need to heal the horrible wounds incurred by servicemen returning from the Vietnam War. Indeed, after a conversation with a ranking army officer, his work began under a simple hypothesis: