lying bone. Epithelial inclusions can occur deep into the artificial sockets if it were done without first exposing the bone. Also, the true crest of the bony ridge would often be misrepresented with-out first exposing.

2. All incisions through the soft tissues must be done with a sharp scalpel and must be clean and neat and must reach directly to the bone.

3. When making an incision around a completely edentulous arch, the operator should always try to make it continuous, starting from one side and continuing on to the other side. He should not try to make two half incisions that meet since often the incisions will not join each other accurately involving accessory incisions which could delay healing.

4.  If the scalpel does not go completely through the periosteal tissues, these tissues will ultimately be torn during reflection which could lead to healing by secondary intention rather than primary intention causing a great deal of bone loss, unnecessary discomfort, and pain to the patient.

5.  The incision must always be made at least one and a half to twice the length as the mesio-distal length of the blade that is to be used. A short incision will result in stretching, pulling and tearing the soft tissues in order to visualize enough bone for the placement of the implant. This can lead to post-operative swelling, edema and engorgement of the blood vessels as well as echymosis. By not reflecting the tissues enough, air from the handpiece while making the groove could possibly be trapped into this small flap resulting in an air embolism. By having a large reflection any air that is directed toward the flaps is more or less dissipated causing no problems.

6.  Vertical incisions should be avoided whenever possible since they take a great deal longer to heal than horizontal incisions.

7.  The periosteal elevator should be used as a "pusher" rather than a "puller". In other words, in order to cleanly separate the periosteum and fibrous connective tissues from the underlying bone, pushing firmly along the exposed bone will result in a much cleaner and less traumatic reflection of these tissues.

8.  Certain areas should be carefully reflected when reflecting the tissue in the mental foramen areas as well as in dehiscent mandibular canals.

In the mandible, the incision should curve bucally just before it reaches the retromolar pad areas. Too often a great deal of pain

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