Current Concepts of Bone Regeneration in Implant Dentistry

Success of dental implants depends largely on the quality and quantity of available bone in the recipient site [1]. This however may be compromised or unavailable due to tumor, trauma or periodontal disease etc., which in turn necessitates the need for additional bone augmentation. Successful regeneration requires the essential components of cells, scaffold and signaling molecules. This is effectively achieved with the use of autologous bone and is thus considered the gold standard of bone regeneration against which all other types of bone regenerative materials are compared. However autologous bone grafting is associated with morbidity of the recipient site. With the tremendous advances in the field of regenerative biomaterials, a wide range of biomaterials have been tested as an alternative to autologous bone. This review outlines the present scenario in bone regenerative therapy in implant dentistry, the various biomaterials, surgical techniques employed to circumvent different clinical situations and the future directions in the field of bone regeneration.