Author(s)

Meltem Koray^1*, Neslihan Senel², Aysegul Senemtası¹, Ilknur Özcan², Mehmet Yaltırık¹

¹Istanbul University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Istanbul, Turkey.
²Istanbul University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Istanbul, Turkey.

The placement of implants in edentulous areas is often compromised because of atrophic alveolar ridges. Several techniques have been suggested in the literature to increase inadequte bone width which includes bone grafting, distraction osteogenesis and bone expansion. Bone expansion technique is one of the most widely used methods which can also be utilized to increase the width of alveolar ridge and to provide sufficient bone volume for implant placement. The purpose of this study, is to measure the increase of the width of alveolar ridge after bone expansion following implant placement. Between 2013-2016, 30 consecutive, healthy, non-smoking, adult patients with atrophy of the maxilla and mandibula had 149 implants inserted. There were 18 women and 12 men, mean age 51.34 years (range 34 - 67). The initial width of the alveolar ridge measured from 2.5 to 3 mm (mean 2.83 ± 0.2) with Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The mean increase of bone width was achieved 1.25 mm (between 0.64 mm and 1.73 mm). Before prosthetic rehabilitation, width of expanded alveolar bone was calculated from 3.50 to 4.75 mm with CBCT. During follow-up, 140 implants survived and 9 implants failed. The rate of implant survival was 93.95% after average 5 years follow-up. In conclusion, we suggest that, bone expansion is useful for managing the unsufficient ridges for implant placement.

Inadequate Bone, Expansion, Dental Implant

Koray, M. , Senel, N. , Senemtası, A. , Özcan, I. and Yaltırık, M. (2017) Changes in Alveolar Bone Width Following Bone Expansion. Open Journal of Stomatology, 7, 305-313. doi: 10.4236/ojst.2017.77025.