Purpose: Intraoral bone blocks from the external oblique are the gold standard for alveolar ridge bone grafting, but the limited amount of available bone limits their use for larger defects. The objective of this study was to compare whether different graft designs of intraoral bone blocks could affect the amount of bone gain.
Materials and Methods: In this in vitro study, 20 pig jaws were used to harvest bone blocks and subsequently augment single-wall bone defects. Each bone graft was first used as a full block, and then the same block was divided lengthwise into two blocks, with one block fixed at a distance as a cortical shell and the second block particulated to fill the gap between graft and bone. Three stereolithographic (STL) files (pre-OP, full block, split block) were generated using an intraoral scanner. All STL files were evaluated for volume gain and horizontal bone dimensions.
Results: A mean volume gain of 0.36 cm2 (SD: 0.09) was achieved for the full block and 0.78 cm2 (SD: 0.14) for the split block using the same block. The difference was statistically significant (P < .0001). A mean horizontal bone gain of 4.37 mm (SD: 0.93) was achieved with a full block and 5.77 mm (SD: 0.85) with the shell technique (P < .0001).
Conclusion: With the same amount of bone removed, first as a full block and then as a split block, the split-block technique achieved a significantly higher bone gain compared with the full-block design.