The first Interfaces Conference was held at Swansea in April 1988 and represented the then state of the art of the science of implant surgery. The motivation for the initial venture was a supposed need for a closer interaction and dialogue between the clinician and scientist working in this area. As expressed in the Preface to the first Conference, we felt that the interface was represented graphically, scientifically and psychologically by the drawings of Edgar Rubins (1915), again widely used in the literature to the present Proceedings. The first Conference, we believe, achieved the aims of the organisers in bringing together scientists and clinicians towards an exchange of ideas by logically pursuing the sequence of events in clinical implant surgery. The present Conference, in collaboration with our Italian colleagues, has also attempted to achieve the same aims by examining the behaviour of implants constructed of a variety of materials in both hard and soft tissue. Many contributions in the conference employed the technique of finite element analysis, both for design and optimisation purposes, particularly in relation to bone remodelling. Indeed, this particular aspect of the Conference led to much debate and will require a major examination of the many levels of physical, chemical and biomechanical interactive behaviour of the implant and its environment. All this natural behaviour was presented and discussed, but difficulties and failures remain with such procedures and we feel it is only by continuing such meetings that we progress in this difficult area of clinical science.

The thirty nine papers accepted for pub1 ication in the First International Conference on 'Interfaces in Medicine & Meehani cs' at Swansea in Apri 1, 1988 represent the current state of the art in the science of implant surgery. This initial venture was planned and undertaken when the present editors and their colleagues realised the need for a closer interaction and dialogue between the clinician and. those basic scientists working in the area of implant surgery. Thi s interface, together with the real interface at the material/tissue borders, thus forms the basis of the present conference. These two ideas, we felt, were nicely and effectively captured in the drawing by Edgar Rubins (1915), a perception psycho 1 ogi st, used on the book cover and elsewhere in our 1 iterature. The Proceedings were planned with some difficulty, due to the wi de scope of the conference. However, we felt the best format was to follow the logical progression of implant development. The introductory papers and talks therefore demonstrate the scope of surgical implants in current use. The development of an implant starts with modelling of the proposed implant and its potential environment and the proceedings follow the same format. Following this, materials in current use are discussed.