Guided bone regeneration (GBR)

Guided bone regeneration applies the principle of guided tissue regeneration to bone. A membrane — resorbable collagen, or non-resorbable PTFE, sometimes reinforced with titanium — separates the defect from the overlying flap, so that the faster-growing epithelial and connective-tissue cells cannot occupy the space before bone does. Beneath the membrane, a graft material (autogenous bone, allograft, xenograft or a synthetic) supports the membrane and acts as a scaffold for new bone.

Wang and Boyapati summarised the requirements for predictable regeneration as the PASS principles: primary wound closure, angiogenesis, space maintenance, and stability of the wound and the graft. Two of the four — space maintenance and stability — concern whether the graft stays in the volume intended for it. The failure mode on the other side of those two principles is graft displacement.

GBR is used for horizontal and vertical ridge augmentation, for peri-implant dehiscence defects, and in combination with alveolar ridge preservation. The 2019 European Workshop consensus and the 2023 ITI consensus report summarise the expected outcomes and their stability.

On this site

GBR is the context in which a cohesive, pre-portioned particulate graft is being studied as a development objective; see how the composition is designed. No ALGINAGRAFT™ data exist yet; see the state of evidence.