Guided bone regeneration (GBR) is considered to be the most versatile technique for vertical ridge augmentation (VRA). Vertically augmented bone shows a significant volume reduction in the short-term follow-up and shows similar marginal bone resorption in the long term as well as residual bone. However, in actual clinical practice, it is important not only to maintain the new bone volume, but also to maintain the oral function and esthetics over the long term. This report describes the long-term predictability of VRA through two cases followed up for more than 8 years after GBR and reviews the literature.

When sufficient bone volume cannot be secured for implant placement, bone augmentation is an essential procedure for long-term functional and esthetic stability of the implant. In fact, the implant survival rate at the site where bone augmentation was performed is not significantly different from that at sites without bone augmentation.

On the other hand, in addition to the bone augmentation technique, there are a wide variety of bone graft materials and barrier membranes to be used, and these should be selected based on the experience and skills of the operator.

This review outlines the characteristics of bone graft materials and reconsiders the horizontal and vertical bone augmentation methods and criteria for selecting the materials to be used at the evidence level.

Since the development of the crestal sinus lift, there has been a distinction between the crestal approach and the lateral approach in clinical practice. Most treatments are based on the vertical width of the existing bone, but the author has adopted the crestal approach even in cases with a narrower existing bone width to perform a less invasive surgery. However, the success rate for patients with less than 3 mm of existing bone was low due to adhesion of Schneider's membrane to the maxillary sinus base bone. However, the success rate was low in cases where the existing bone was less than 3 mm due to adhesion of Schneider's membrane to the maxillary sinus floor bone, etc. In cases where the existing bone was small, a high success rate was observed by forming a slit window in the crestal area and detaching Schneider's membrane with an instrument. If the success rate is high but the success rate of sinus lift is not 100%, the recovery method should be enhanced. This article reports four recovery methods for problems such as perforation of Schneider's membrane in the crestal approach, and introduces a cleaning method for maxillary sinusitis that may occur after perforation of Schneider's membrane, which is a common problem during sinus lift.

The survival rates of dental implants in the sinus lift area are equivalent to those in existing bone. Thus, the sinus lift procedure has been established as an effective bone augmentation technique for implant placement in the posterior maxilla. As the maxillary sinus lift procedure has become more common, the number of complications and problems has increased. One reason is that surgeons can easily perform sinus lift surgery without understanding the degree of its difficulty and without sufficiently acquiring the necessary diagnostic capabilities and techniques. To improve the predictability of the sinus lift procedure, it is necessary to not only sufficiently perform preoperative examination, diagnosis, and treatment planning, but also understand the degree of difficulty of the procedure and perform it accordingly. This article presents the ST classification (Toshiro Sugai's classification) of sinus lift surgery by CT imaging, and describes the surgical procedures to improve the safety and predictability of the sinus lift procedure according to the ST classification.

Introduction: It is difficult to rehabilitate patients with jaw deformity and multiple tooth loss by oral implant therapy only. Thus, these patients should be treated with a multidisciplinary approach by specialists of orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery and oral implantology. However, patients with multiple tooth loss sometimes lose their molars which could have been used as orthodontic anchors and, therefore, it is necessary to place dental implants or special orthodontic anchor screws as orthodontic anchors.

Treatment: A 49-year-old female patient had jaw deformity, facial asymmetry, and missing upper front teeth and right mandibular first premolar and molars. A dental implant was placed in the right second molar position, and preoperative orthodontic treatment was performed using the implant as an orthodontic anchor, after which two-jaw surgery was indicated. After postoperative orthodontic treatment, an additional implant was placed in the first molar position of the right mandible. The final superstructure of the mandible and final removable partial denture of the maxilla were subsequently delivered. All treatments were completed by May 2008, and the favorable condition has continued as of December 2020.

Conclusion: Dental implants are a very useful option as orthodontic anchors before prosthetic restoration.

Background : It is important to understand the shape of the maxillary sinus ostium when diagnosing maxillary sinusitis prior to implant placement. To establish the criteria for using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging for determining the maxillary sinus ostium, measurements of dry skulls were obtained using cephalograms.

Materials and Methods : Twenty hemi-separated dry skulls were used. The midpoint of the uncinate process (UP) of the ethmoid bone, which is around the ostium of the maxillary sinus, was marked with a ball bearing. A lateral cephalogram, as well as vertical and horizontal measurements of the UP, was obtained. To evaluate the vertical position, a line crossing the nasion parallel to the FH plane was set. Then, the vertical position of the UP between the line and palatal plane was measured. To evaluate the horizontal position of the UP, the crossing point of the perpendicular of the UP and FH planes was set as the reference point. Then, the horizontal position of the reference point from the orbitale (Or) to porion (Po) was measured.

Results : For the vertical positional relationship, the UP was 20.8±2.5 mm below the reference plane, crossing the nasion and parallel to the FH plane. As for the horizontal positional relationship, the UP was 11.2±2.4 mm posterior to the orbitale on the FH plane.

Conclusion : For diagnosing conditions of the maxillary sinus ostium using CBCT imaging, it is important to adequately use landmarks to determine the region of interest.