Onlay bone grafts in head and neck reconstruction.

Autologous bone grafting has been described as a means of dealing with the deficiencies of soft tissue, cartilage, or bone in restoring facial symmetry. One advantage is the excellent tissue tolerance. However, there are disadvantages to its use as an onlay graft, and they are related to the possibility of partial resorption of the graft due to the lack of the stimulation of muscular stress on the graft. Bone grafting remains a useful technique among the reconstructive procedures available to the head and neck surgeon.