The role of barrier membranes in guided bone regeneration; A review

The Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR) treatment concept advocates that regeneration of osseous defects is predictably attainable via the application of occlusive membranes, which mechanically exclude non-osteogenic cell populations from the surrounding soft tissues, thereby allowing osteogenic cell populations originating from the parent bone to inhabit the osseous wound. The use of membrane to exclude non-osteogenic cells, is a key principle of guided bone regeneration. A large number of membranes have been evaluated in clinical and experimental studies. The object of this study was to review the literature regarding guided bone regeneration and all types of membranes that were used in this technique. 72 articles between the years 1968 through the 2016 from PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar using the related keywords, were selected. Finally, we concluded that the modification of mechanical and physico-chemical properties of membranes could improve the process of new bone growth. However, determination of the exact role of membrane porosity in this process, still needs to be clarified. Optimization the chemical composition of membrane with the focus and attention to obstructive property and bioactivity, is an important point in this research field. Various factors such as flexibility, mechanical strength and degradation rate determine the type of membrane used for bone tissue regeneration