Prior to 1925, the materials used in implant surgery were primarily relatively pure metals. The success of these materials was surprising considering the relatively primitive surgical techniques. The 1930s marked the beginning of the era of better surgical techniques as well as the first use of alloys such as vitallium.
In 1969, L. L. Hench and others discovered that various kinds of glasses and ceramics could bond to living bone. Hench was inspired by the idea on his way to a conference on materials. He was seated next to a colonel who had just returned from the Vietnam War. The colonel shared that after an injury the bodies of soldiers would often reject the implant. Hench was intrigued and began to investigate materials that would be biocompatible. The final product was a new material which he called bioglass. This work inspired a new field called bioceramics. With the discovery of bioglass, interest in bioceramics grew rapidly.
On April 26, 1988, the first international symposium on bioceramics was held in Kyoto, Japan.