Crack-healing behavior of silicon carbide ceramics sintered with AlN and Sc2O3 has been studied as a function of heat-treatment temperature and applied stress. Results showed that heat treatment in air could significantly increase the indentation strength whether a stress is applied or not. After heat treatment with no applied stress at 1300 degrees C for 1 h in air, the indentation strength of the specimen with an indentation crack of similar to 100 mu m (approximate to 2c) recovered its strength fully at room temperature. In addition, a simple heat treatment at 1200 degrees C for 5 h under an applied stress of 200 MPa in air resulted in a complete recovery of the unindented strength at the healing temperature. However, higher applied stress led to fracture of the specimens during heat treatment. The static fatigue limit of the specimens crack healed at 1200 degrees C for 5 h under 200 MPa was similar to 450 MPa at the healing temperature. The ratio of the static fatigue limit of the crack-healed specimen to the unindented strength was similar to 80%.