[Anterior mandibular bone augmentation techniques. Literature review]

Mandibular edentation may lead to major symphyseal resorption making the placement of dental implants impossible. In this situation, bone augmentation techniques are available. The goal of our study was to make a review of the literature of the different techniques in use.

A bibliographic research was conducted on the Medline, Ovid and Cochrane Library databases with the following keywords: anterior mandible, bone grafting, mandibular symphysis reconstruction. We selected only articles written in English, published from January 1975 to August 2014 and expressly dealing with anterior mandibular bone augmentation techniques.

Sixty-nine articles were analyzed. Eight bone augmentation techniques were reported. Bone grafting using iliac or calvarial bone and immediate or delayed implantation was the most popular technique. The main complications were infection, exposure or resorption of the graft, and chin and lip hypo- or anesthesia. The other reported techniques (osteotomies, distraction osteogenesis, transmandibular implants, mandibular reconstruction plates, fibula free flaps) were more confidential or had specific indications. There was no indication for biomaterials excepted if combined with autologous bone.