Description
Bony repair underlies many aspects of dental practice ranging from the healing of a fracture or resolution of a periapical infection to the success of a grafting procedure. As the biological factors which regulate this process are worked out techniques are emerging which may be applied to promote bone regeneration in a clinical setting. This article reviews aspects of the basic biology of fracture healing and briefly discusses how contemporary molecular biology and tissue engineering technologies might be applied to clinical situations in which it is desirable to promote bone regeneration.
