Talk:Hydroxylapatite

Name

the international association of mineralogy strongly recommends the word hydroxylapatite rather than hydroxyapatite. I suggest this article is renamed to hydroxylapatite.

Bedrupsbaneman 16:32, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Should Hydroxyapatite be listed as an alternate name? Is it an older spelling? RJFJR 18:42, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

I don't know about it being older but the alternate spelling is certainly in use in solid-state chemistry and quite a few of the medical articles I've read also call it Hydroxyapatite. If anyone can get a source for that recommendation then it's worth mentioning in the article IMHO --Edith The Hutt 16:10, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I think that this is a case of two different sciences using two different names for the same thing. The medical profession seems to se hydroxyapatite. On the other hand the offical name of the mineral is Hydroxylapatite per the dictate of the International Mineralogical Association, the governing body of Mineralogy. Kevmin 04:06, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I think it is pretentious to use an irregular spelling as the primary spelling for an article on a biomedical material, relying on an international association of mineralogy to set the standard. It is appropriate for them to control the usages of mineralogical names, such as whether a beryllium aluminum garnet should be called beryl, or one with a chromium color center should be called emerald while a similar green with an iron color center is not emerald, but it is not in their purview, with respect to mainstream chemistry to make up new names or spellings. Hydroxyapatite has been the proper spelling in chemical publications for longer than the mineralogy group has been in existence and it is acknowledged the preferred spelling in medical publications, and I would think that teeth had more to do with medical studies than with rocks.173.54.37.223 (talk) 18:44, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

As this article is primarily about the mineral, the accepted mineral name is appropriate. If you want, you could start a medical article or add to the bone mineral stub. Vsmith (talk) 20:32, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Tooth enamel use

The tooth enamel page says it's made of hydroxylapatite. Can someone add to this article why this substance isn't used for dental fillings? It would seem like a natural choice if the substance is identical. (I also asked this over at the dental fillings talk page, and that article would benefit from the answer to this question, if anyone knows.) Tempshill 06:30, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

IIRC it's about 90% hydroxylapatite yes, I'd speculate it's got something to do with the difficulty of forming it and that HAp in tooth enamel has a pretty distinctive microstructure which is very difficult to reproduce. That and maybe the fact you want to replace dentin too, I'm not a dentist or a bio-materials engineer so I couldn't really comment on that aspect. --Edith The Hutt 16:10, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

On usage of hydroxylapatite for small fillings: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7058

--Md2perpe 14:07, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Specific gravity imprecision

Hello,

The specific gravity is quoted as 3.08 in the text, but between 3.14 and 3.21 in the cartouche. Which one is right?

24.37.29.254 (talk) 20:25, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Provided references give both, but it is more likely the larger value [1]. Lower one (3.08) might be due to porosity. Materialscientist (talk) 22:35, 27 July 2011 (UTC)