[Preprosthetic surgery (without implantology)]

This paper describes preprosthetic surgery from its historical beginnings to its present state-of-the-art status. Future perspectives of preprosthetic surgery are also outlined, excluding implants. In an enquiry of 250 German-speaking maxillofacial departments, 160 responded. Results showed that a surprising 30-50% of the institutions are still following guidelines for procedures which have been proven by scientific follow-up studies to be almost 100% unsuccessful.