Bone graft putty

A putty is a particulate graft that has been combined with a carrier so that it can be handled as one piece: shaped with the fingers, placed with an instrument and, in some products, delivered from a syringe. The graft component may be demineralised bone matrix, allograft or xenograft particles, or a synthetic calcium phosphate. The carrier gives the handling; the particles give the scaffold.

Putty is the dominant handling form in orthopaedic bone void fillers and a minority form in dental grafting. In the FDA device registry retrieved on September 10, 2026, a putty form appears in 11.9% of active orthopaedic bone-void-filler listings and 1.9% of active dental bone-graft listings; the Journal article on the registry gives the queries.

What the carrier does after placement is the open question. Calder and colleagues (2025) reported that most carriers used in commercial putties resorb within days, after which the particle scaffold is left unsupported. A 2017 comparison of particulate and putty-like tricalcium phosphate in sinus floor augmentation found bone formation with both. Whether a putty maintains its volume under the flap is what the 2025 ex vivo CBCT study of a mouldable octacalcium phosphate set out to measure.

On this site

The composition under development is a mouldable, pre-portioned form in which the carrier is an alginate hydrogel rather than collagen, glycerol or a cellulose; see how the composition is designed. Its handling has not yet been evaluated; see the state of evidence.