Tooth Roots for Lateral Alveolar Ridge Augmentation

A deficient alveolar ridge segment in prepara¬tion for implant placement can be regenerated by several techniques. The type of graft material for each patient depends on many factors such as the anatomy, the morphology of the bone defect, type of prosthodontic rehabilitation and patient or clinician preferences. Bone graft material should have three properties that made it ideal: a) osteoconduction, it provides scaffolds for bone regeneration; b) osteoinduction, it promotes the recruitment of bone-forming cells and formation of bone and c) osteogenesis, induction of cells in the graft to promote regeneration of the bone. Despite of the development of different types of graft material, autogenous bone is still the gold standard for bone augmentation because it exhibits these three mentioned properties. Although it has many advantages, autologous bone has some disadvantages such as high resorption rate up to 50 %, limited source and donor site morbidity. Allografts, xenografts and alloplastic bone graft are materials that are used in everyday practice and over long period, but their disadvantages are numerous in comparison with autologous bone. Allografts can be carrier of some disease and show lack of osteoproliferation, while alloplasts and xenografts show only osteoconduction. According to these facts, it is obvious that there is a need for development an alternative graft material that will surpass these disadvantages.The reconstruction of deficient alveolar ridge defect by the lateral bone augmentation prior to the dental implant placement is predictable and commonly used method. Except animal studies, recent clinical studies showed that there is no difference in the osseointegration of titanium implants in deficient alveolar ridges reconstructed with autogenous cortical bone blocks or autogenous teeth.