Titanium, the metal of choice for dental appliances has recently been in the spotlight mainly due to problems associated with the breaking down of the metal within the human body. More routinely used in the mending of broken bones, the metal has been found to degrade and corrode in time leaving patients with fragments and fine particles in their blood stream.

The dental community has taken the cause and are beginning to ask the same question, are they safe in dental applications. Studies are under way but for the meantime, tests that will detect and show the concentration of titanium metal in the blood is being developed as well. Toxicity is an issue that has to be determined and decided upon, which again gives ground to composites as materials of choice by dentists the world over.