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Alveolar Ridge Augmentation (Splitting)

Dental alveolus (plural: alveoli) are the tooth sockets in the jawbone in which the roots of the teeth are located. The ridge of the jawbone where the teeth enter the bone is called the Alveolar Ridge, and the width of this ridge can vary greatly from person to person, from 3mm up to 8mm.

In order to place implants in a thin alveolar ridge, the ridge need to be split and widened. This sounds horrific, but with a sharp chisel-like hand instrument the outer cortex layer of the alveolar ridge can easily be split and widened by an experienced dentist who has had training in this.

In most cases a dental implant can be placed immediately after the ridge splitting, because the bone grows back into the gap created, and osseointegrates with the implant as it would do quite normally in a straightforward implant placement case.