Alveolar ridge reconstruction with preprosthetic surgery: a precursor to site preservation following extraction of natural dentition.
Before dental implant therapy became a common treatment modality, oral and maxillofacial surgeons managed malcontent denture patients by performing preprosthetic surgical procedures to enhance the denture-bearing areas of the intraoral cavity. Surgical techniques used today to augment and enhance deficient ridges to receive implants follow the same biologic principles and are employed to achieve the same goal: an improved alveolar ridge form of both hard and soft tissues. The key to successful implant treatment is providing a solid bony base to stabilize the implant. Therefore, the main goal for the surgeon is to preserve the alveolar ridge and basal bone, if present.
Moy
Peter K
PK
Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, University of California-Los Angeles School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA, USA. pkmoy@ucla.edu