Dental implants have been successfully implemented as a routine therapeutic approach in partially and fully edentulous patients.  Alveolar defects compromise the “prosthetically-driven” dental implant positioning, unless a detailed planning is performed prior to the surgical phase.  Many techniques have been described to augment alveolar bone, including autogenous block grafts, titanium mesh, distraction osteogenesis, guided bone regeneration, just to name a few.

The use of Guided Bone Regeneration associated to non-autogenous scaffolds constitutes the standard of care of bone augmentation in all alveolar defects with or without implants. The additional soft tissue reconstruction is a prerequisite to achieve a harmonic aesthetic result.  Choosing the correct therapeutic approach with the appropriate biomaterials is a fundamental player to achieve success in all GBR procedures.

Learning Objectives:
• To understand how the biology behind the mechanism of GBR facilitates the clinical success
• To learn how to apply the specific surgical protocol for horizontal dimensional GBR procedures
• To master the soft tissues to ensure a passive closure
• To learn the suturing techniques in GBR
• To learn how to avoid the mistakes that often lead to premature membrane exposure
• To understand the different anatomical sites with their pros and cons