Silicones for Medical Use

that every single material derived from silicon chemistry seems extremely modern. Silicon occurs naturally in sand and rocks, generally in the form of silica and silicate, and is the second most abundant element on earth after oxygen. Only crystalline silicon and the silanes and organosiloxanes are truly modern products: they do not occur freely in nature, but are entirely the product of human invention. Table l outlines the terminology relating to the most common silicon derivatives. In the medical industry, the term "silicone" refers to polydimethylsiloxane derivatives and to those compounds of which they are the principal constituents.