The mechanical properties and damage mode of {{{{ {Y}_{2 } {O}_{3} }}-doped tetragonal (Y-TZP) can-didated as biomaterials were performed under indentation stress-strain curve critical load for yield and cracking strength degradation and fatigue behavior with Hertzian indentation tests. This material shows the brittle behavior which is confirmed by indentation stress-strain response. The critical load for cracking(Pc) is much higher than that for yields (Py) indicating crack resistance Strength were strongly dependant on contact area and there were no degradation when the indenter size was ${gamma}$=3.18 mm suggesting that Y-TZP should be highly damage tolerant to the blunt contacts. Multi-cycle contact were found to be innocuous up to {{{{ {10 }^{6 } }} cycles at 500N and {{{{ {10 }^{5 } }} cycles at 1000N in water. On the other hand contacts at {{{{ {10 }^{6 } }} cycles at 1000 N in water did show some signs of incipient degradation. By contrast contacts with Vickers indenter pro-duced substantial strength losses at much lower loads suggesting that the mechanical integrity of this ma-terial would be compromised by inadvertent sharp contacts.