A prosthetic treatment of maxillary protrusion should be indicated, when the patient is old, or anterior teeth of upper jaw cannot be preserved.For many years, removing the external labial of bone was practiced in such a case.However this method has disadvantages of lowering the alveolar ridge and sometimes causing undercuts with passing time, because the postoperative bone resorption is excessive and irregular.
We performed intraseptal alveolectomy (Dean's technique) for the prosthetic treatment in 5 cases, and satisfactory results were obtained in all cases.We consider that this technique based on biological princioles has some advantages as follows:
1) Postoperative inflamation is slight, because the labial periost and the muscle attachment are not disturbed.
2) As the periodontal membrane is preserved, healing is rapid.
3) As the labial cortical plates of bone is preserved as a vital onlay bone graft with intact blood supply, postoperative resorption is minimized, and the shape of alveolar ridge is rarely changed.
4) This technique lends itself well to immediate denture surgery, and needs no rebase for final denture.
5) We can mold the alveolr ridge into the desired contour during operation.
6) This technique is a simple dental surgery which can be done in an outpatient room under local anesthesia.
