Regenerative approaches in alveolar bone augmentation for dental implant placement: Techniques, biomaterials, and clinical decision-making: A comprehensive review

•Minimally Invasive Procedures minimize postoperative complications and enhance the healing of both soft and hard tissues, leading to superior results.•The shell technique and soft tissue expanders have shown outstanding outcomes in addressing various ridge defects.•Custom-designed bone blocks, titanium mesh, and zirconia membranes produced via computerized methods reduce surgical time and trauma, resulting in fewer postoperative complications and improved patient outcomes.•Various ridge augmentation methods—vertical, horizontal, or combined—show a range of outcomes influenced by the selection of techniques for specific cases.•Soft tissue augmentation approaches, especially for vertical ridge augmentation, are effective due to their minimally invasive nature, blood supply preservation, and positive impact on healing.•Advances in biomaterials, tissue engineering, growth factor-enriched bone grafts, gene-activated grafts, and three-dimensional technology offer promising prospects for improving regenerative surgical procedures. This review aimed to evaluate the outcomes of ridge augmentation techniques and bio-materials for alveolar bone regeneration, addressing inconsistencies across studies. A decision tree is provided to guide clinicians in selecting optimal approaches for diverse clinical scenarios. An extensive search was conducted across electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Embase, alongside dental implant and prosthodontics journal portals. Reference lists of relevant articles were also manually reviewed up to October 2024. Inclusion criteria were established to emphasize English-language human clinical trials investigating regenerative techniques and materials utilized for ridge augmentation prior to implant placement. Selecting defect-specific regenerative approaches is crucial for successful outcomes in alveolar bone augmentation. While autografts remain the gold standard, advancements in allografts, xenografts, synthetics, and biological enhancers are transforming the field. Distraction osteogenesis is also gaining prominence as a promising technique. Clinicians should leverage these innovations to tailor treatments to individual patient needs for optimal results. The decision tree developed categorizes alveolar bone anomalies and suggests tailored approaches based on anticipated resorption patterns. Careful patient evaluation and tailored technique selection, combined with advancements in biomaterials and tissue engineering, are ess