Biomimetic developments to improve the OOKP

While the alveo‐dental tissue provides an excellent source for the Osteo‐odonto‐keratoprosthesis (OOKP) skirt with highest biointegrability anteriorly and inertness posteriorly, it brings with itself a number of disadvantages like oral trauma, laminar resorption, complex surgical technique and multiple stages of the procedure. Additionally, edentulous patients and those with unsuitable teeth are left with the options of less successful allografts and tibial bone carriers for the KPro. Therefore, a synthetic skirt material which, could avoid the problems of tooth extraction, complications of allografts and immunosuppression will be advantageous. A lamina available off the shelf can drastically minimise the surgical procedure duration and stages, and has the potential for replacements. A number of materials have been proposed using Dacron skirts (Pintucci), ceramics, corals, bioactive glass and titanium. These materials have advantages and disadvantages. However, a synthetic material that mimics the alveo‐dental tissue in porosity, mineral composition and biostability may prove suitable as a substrate for synthetic lamina.