[A panorama of current materials for osseous application in maxillofacial surgery and oral implantology].

Many materials are used in bone reconstruction. According to their physico-chemical structure, their activity is based on one of the three main mechanisms of bone repair: osteogenesis, osteoconduction, osteo-induction. The materials can be classified in two categories: tissues and substitution biomaterials. Tissues may be living ones (mainly, autograft) or non living ones (mainly, allograft or xenograft). Among the substitution biomaterials, we find synthetic materials (calcium based ceramics, vitreous ceramics and bioglasses, polymers) and composite materials made of a mixture of synthetic and natural materials or a mixture of different synthetic materials or a mixture of different synthetic materials. At last, membranes provide a new technic in bone reconstruction. They come from natural origin (human or animal) or synthetic origin (resorbable or non resorbable).