Bone grafting and its essential role in implant dentistry.

Pressure to deliver implant-born prosthetics in most partially edentulous situations is growing. The implant team is faced with high patient expectations for optimal function and aesthetics while being challenged to restore more complex areas of the jaw. Osseous ridge deficiencies are more often the norm than the exception following tooth loss. Squeezing short or narrow implants into deficient ridges is a poor technique that often fails to properly replace ridge anatomy or provide stable restorations. Bone grafting should assume an essential role to the implant team if their objective is to create biologically sound replicas of missing natural teeth.