Cranial bone grafting and simultaneous implants: a submental technique to reconstruct the atrophic mandible

Results after treatment of severe maxillary and mandibular atrophy (Cawood classes V and VI) are often unsatisfactory and unpredictable. Reconstruction of such severely resorbed edentulous jaws represents a challenge. In maxillofacial surgery, bone grafts from the skull (split calvarial bone grafts) are commonly used for reconstruction of large bone defects of the midface. In the 1990s, various authors reported alveolar-ridge augmentation using calvarial bone grafts. This is the first report of its kind describing an extraoral approach for cranial bone grafting with simultaneous implant placement to the atrophic mandible.