Background: The purpose of this study was to compare clinical results of two different horizontal ridge augmentation techniques: guided bone regeneration with sticky bone (SB) and the bone-shell technique (BS).
Methods: Records of patients who underwent horizontal ridge augmentation with SB (test) and BS (control) were screened for inclusion. Pre-operative and 6-month post-operative ridge widths were measured on cone beam computer tomography (CBCT) and compared. Post-operative complications and implant survival rate were recorded.
Results: Eighty consecutive patients were included in the present study. Post-operative complications (flap dehiscence, and graft infection) occurred in ten patients, who dropped out from the study (12.5% complication rate). Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a significant inverse correlation between the occurrence of post-operative complications and ridge width (p = 0.025). Seventy patients (35 test; 35 control) with a total of 127 implants were included in the final analysis. Mean ridge width gain was 3.7 ± 1.2 mm in the test and 3.7 ± 1.1 mm in the control group, with no significant difference between the two groups. No implant failure was recorded, with a mean follow-up of 42.7 ± 16.0 months after functional loading.
Conclusions: SB and BS showed comparable clinical outcomes in horizontal ridge augmentation, resulting in sufficient crestal width increase to allow implant placement in an adequate bone envelope.
Keywords: autologous bone chips; bone-shell technique; guided bone regeneration; lateral ridge augmentation; particulate bone grafting; sticky bone; xenograft.