Numerous surgical procedures concerning vertical and horizontal bone augmentation emerge with the rapid development of dental implant surgery. Many patients have the problem of vertical bone deficiency, however, compared to horizontal bone augmentation, vertical bone augmentation is more complex and unpredictable and induces more complications. Therefore, vertical bone augmentation gains increased attention in both clinical and basic research field. Distraction osteogenesis and guided membrane regeneration are two commonly conducted vertical bone augmentation surgical procedures under intensive investigation. In this review, we evaluated these two procedures in a clinical perspective and evaluated them according to their augmentation efficiency, bone resorption and implantation success.
