From Conventional Approaches to Sol-gel Chemistry and Strategies for the Design of 3D Additive Manufactured Scaffolds for Craniofacial Tissue Engineering

Over the past two decades, great interest has been focused on craniofacial tissue engineering. In particular, a significant contribution was clearly due to the research and development in the field of bone augmentation, thus leading to tissue engineering as an alternative treatment option in dentistry and medicine. This chapter presents an overview of conventional and recent developments in the field of craniofacial bone regeneration and augmentation. Bioceramics, bioglasses, biopolymers and biocomposites are described together with their peculiar features. Starting from experimental and theoretical analysis performed on the material, a special focus is devoted to the potential combination of sol-gel chemistry and CAD-based approach to design additively manufactured scaffolds for craniofacial tissue engineering. 3D cell printing technology would also be an interesting approach enabling researchers to suspend and position cells embedded in materials such as hydrogels. 3D bioprinting could allow in obtaining specific mechanical properties, cell interactions and desired distribution of growth factors.