The Art of Socket Preservation: From Easy Wins to Challenging Cases
Socket preservation has become an essential component of modern implant and restorative dentistry. As the extraction socket undergoes rapid dimensional remodeling, choosing the appropriate intervention is critical for maintaining ridge contours, supporting soft tissue architecture, and optimizing implant site development.
This lecture provides a comprehensive, stepwise overview of post extraction ridge management from straightforward sockets requiring minimal intervention to complex defects requiring advanced regenerative strategies. Attendees will review biologic principles of socket healing, assessment of socket morphology and a special emphasis will be placed on the use of dense PTFE (d-PTFE) membranes for “open healing” protocols and their advantages in contaminated or compromised sites, as well as the role of titanium-reinforced membranes for maintaining space and achieving volume stability in sockets with partial or complete buccal plate loss.
Clinical cases will highlight decision-making pathways, biologic adjuncts, flap vs. flapless approaches, and the management of thin facial phenotypes, molar extraction sockets, and defects where immediate implant placement is not feasible.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this lecture, participants will be able to:
- Describe the biologic principles of post-extraction socket healing and the dimensional changes affecting ridge preservation.
- Assess and classify extraction socket morphology to guide selection of appropriate socket preservation strategies.
- Differentiate the indications and clinical protocols for dense PTFE (d-PTFE) open-healing techniques versus titanium-reinforced membranes in compromised sockets.
- Apply evidence-based decision-making for managing simple to complex extraction sites, including thin facial phenotypes, molar sockets, and cases where immediate implant placement is not feasible.
