Potential Cell-Based Therapies for Irreversibly Damaged Salivary Glands and Atrophic Alveolar Bone - New Trends in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine - page 89

Figure 4. The procedure for clinical study of alveolar bone regeneration at The Research Hospital, The Institute of
Medical Science, The University of Tokyo. Modified from original figure in Kagami et al., 2014.
engineering will provide more options. Accordingly, the selection of an adequate technique
for each case is of importance for practitioners.
When the tissue defect is relatively large and the condition of the recipient site is not optimal,
the use of more invasive technique such as autologous bone grafting might be acceptable.
However, future bone regeneration therapy will probably avoid surgical removal of healthy
bone in favour of less invasive procedures. Bone tissue engineering is one of the most prom‐
ising approaches and is expected to replace cases of autologous bone grafting. Currently, the
best applications and most significant limitations of bone tissue engineering are not clear. Well-
designed clinical studies should be performed to answer these important questions, and these
clinical trials will contribute to the wide acceptance of bone tissue engineering.
4. Conclusion
In the near future, a cell-based therapy will be accepted as a useful or even an essential
treatment option for various diseases in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery. Based on previous
and ongoing studies, radiation-damaged salivary glands and atrophic alveolar bone are the