Guided bone regeneration (GBR) often hinges on the membrane: it must hold space, stay where it is put, and ideally not need a second surgery to come out. This prospective single-arm study tested a three-dimensional preformed resorbable PLGA membrane (3D-PRPM) for horizontal ridge augmentation, placed at the same time as the implant. Twenty patients with 21 localized ridge defects were treated, and cone-beam CT (CBCT) tracked the bone preoperatively, immediately after surgery, and at five months.

Mean horizontal bone augmentation was 2.99 mm, with hard tissue gain at five months of 2.64 mm and only 0.35 mm of resorption, a hard-tissue gain rate of 87.2%. Analysis of the bony envelope confirmed a real increase after augmentation, partial settling during healing, but ridge dimensions at five months still significantly above baseline. Crucially for a barrier, there were no membrane exposures, no infections, no wound dehiscences.

The appeal is practical: a preformed, fixation-free resorbable barrier that augments predictably and never has to be removed, simplifying a procedure that is often fiddly. The caveats are the obvious ones — twenty patients, single arm, five-month horizon — so this is an encouraging early signal rather than a verdict, and it wants comparison against established membranes over longer follow-up.