In laymans terms,
Titanium implants are strong and the body accepts them, but they’re way too stiff
because the metal takes almost all the pressure, the real bone next to it gets lazy and starts to weaken over time (like a muscle that doesn’t get used).
This was the issue with earlier titanium implants and joint replacements
the new implant though are made from a special zinc alloy shaped like a lightweight, sponge-like lattice
it is flexible and almost like real bone, so it shares the load properly and doesn’t cause that weakening problem
Whats REALLY fucking cool is that its also designed to dissolve over time
So its a temporary implant, and as it dissolves, it releases minerals and ions that actually promote your new, healthy bone in its place
When the job is done, the implant is mostly gone and your own bone has taken over and is the proper strength
-medical engineering is a marvel
today while talkin to my friend (who’s a doctor) I learned something really crazy
That the titanium implants don't just sit in bone they actually bone grows into them
the oxide layer on titanium surface is chemically close enough to biological tissue that cells can't find the boundary so they erase it
osseointegration isn't the implant holding on it's biology deciding the metal belongs there
the skeleton adopts the foreign object as its own
Cyborg vibes