Current concepts in the surgical management of the atrophic mandible.

1. For the severely atrophic mandible surgery cannot be considered as a magical panacea. 2. Retention of teeth or tooth roots is important as we are unable to predict the degree of mandibular bone resorption relating to the innate vascular pattern. 3. More emphasis should be given to mylohyoid reduction as described in this paper. 4. A gain in stability by surgery should not be at the expense of retention. 5. Mucosal grafts are more satisfactory than skin grafts. 6. Bone graft augmentation in the future must be considered with great caution. 7. When removing denture hyperplasia which involves the sulcus, every effort must be made to preserve viable mucosa in order to reconstitute a resilient border seal.