Isabella Rocchietta: Bone graft substitutes and guided bone regeneration in treating alveolar defects. Is something changing?

Appropriate implant positioning requires sufficient volume of bone in the desired position. However, bone volume is frequently lacking as a result of trauma or infectious diseases. Regardless of the numerous surgical techniques described in the literature, which aim at regenerating bone in the vertical and horizontal dimension, clinicians still struggle when faced with challenging defects. The appropriate case selection based on the anatomical features of the bone atrophy leads to delivering the most predictable surgical technique.

Advances in digital imaging and 3D reconstructions offer dramatic improvement in diagnostics when faced with severe defects. The use of guided bone regeneration associated to scaffolds constitutes the next generation of vertical bone augmentation.

Dr. Isabella Rocchietta, DDS, specialist in periodontics, graduated in dentistry from the University of Milan, Italy, in 2002. She was awarded a one-year scholarship from the Department of Medicine, University of Milan and completed a research fellowship at the Department Periodontology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, US. She served as a fellow and instructor at the Department of Periodontology, University of Milan, Italy and and as a research consultant for the Institute for Dental Research and Education (IDRE) until 2011. Dr. Rocchietta was Chairman of the EAO Junior Committee (European Academy for Osseointegration) from 2007 to 2011. She is a member of the Experts Council of the Osteology Foundation and the communication committee of the EAO. She currently performs clinical work limited to periodontics and implant dentistry in London, UK. Dr. Rocchietta is affiliated with Department of Biomaterials in the Institute for Clinical Sciences at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is the author of several national and international peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is an international speaker on topics including bone regeneration by means of growth factors and scaffolds; tissue engineering; soft and hard tissue neo-formation with autogenous living cells; osseointegration and implant surface modifications.