Autograft
Bone harvested from the patient's own body and transplanted to the deficient implant site; considered the gold standard for bone augmentation due to osteogenic, osteoinductive, and osteoconductive properties.
Full Definition
An autograft (or autogenous bone graft) is bone tissue harvested from one site in a patient's body (the donor site) and transplanted to a recipient site requiring augmentation. In dental implantology, common donor sites include the chin (symphysis), retromolar region, iliac crest, and calvarium. The autograft is widely regarded as the gold standard augmentation material because it possesses all three key bone-graft properties: osteogenesis (live cells capable of forming new bone), osteoinduction (growth factors that stimulate differentiation), and osteoconduction (scaffold supporting ingrowth). Editors must not confuse autograft with allograft (from a human donor), xenograft (from an animal source), or alloplast (synthetic material). The term is correctly rendered as a single unhyphenated word.
Usage
Usage note: Distinguish clearly from allograft, xenograft, and alloplast. Specify donor site in clinical manuscripts.
In Context
- "Autograft harvested from the contralateral retromolar area was used to augment the severely atrophic anterior mandible." — Surgical augmentation report
- "The table listed 'autograft' and 'allograft' interchangeably; the error was flagged and the correct graft types confirmed with the author." — Copy-editing query