Objectives: Background Intraoral autogenous bone grafts are a convenient source of bone in reconstruction of the residual ridge before dental implant placement.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate bone volume of symphysis donor defects filled with bone substitute compared with unfilled symphysis donor defects.
Patients, materials and methods: The study included 26 patients who underwent either alveolar ridge reconstruction or maxillary sinus elevation. Two groups were studied: symphyseal donor defects filled with bone substitute and unfilled symphyseal donor defects. Pre- and postoperative volumetric variables were determined using computed tomography scans and the software program SimPlant® (Materialise Dental Italia, Roma, Italy).
Results: At 6 months postsurgery, the filled donor defects exhibited a significant increase in bone volume compared with unfilled donor defects (97.7% and 73.4%, respectively). At 18 months postsurgery, volume of unfilled donor defects was reevaluated with no significant increase in bone volume.
Conclusions: Six months following block harvesting procedure, filled donor defects maintained bone volume, while unfilled donor sites generated defects that cannot achieve full regeneration; even not 18 months postblock harvesting.
Keywords: autogenous bone graft; bone substitute; dental implants; donor site; harvesting; mandibular symphysis; onlay graft; symphysis revisiting.
© 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.