Near-IR mode-locked laser assisted sintering and morphological engineering of biomaterials - a new approach for integrative manufacturing of hard-soft tissues for in-theatre use!

The emergence of mode-locked near-IR (NIR) lasers has opened novel and exciting opportunities in dental and orthopaedic medicine. In a mode-locked laser cavity the pulse duration and repetition rates may be controlled between 10-100s of femtosecond (fs) and kHz-GHz ranges, respectively. This unique capability for controlling the incident laser power in a near-IR mode-locked laser has been explored for studying the materials phase transformation, sintering and bonding mechanisms in calcium phosphate and chitosan/calcium phosphate suspensions as biomaterials. The investigation primarily focusses on interaction of such a laser in a linear regime, resulting in a plethora of phase combinations and morphologically controlled structures, which are well suited for in-theatre processing of hard-soft tissues for personalized therapy. In this article, the engineered medical device which combines the materials and laser power delivery at the point of tissue restoration is also discussed. The article exemplifies the case for enamel restoration using such a medical device, which then sets the scene for much wider use in tissue engineering.