Are Bone Expansion Techniques Effective for Implant Placement in Narrow Alveolar Ridges?

Because of the fact that sufficient alveolar ridge bone is essential for the success of implant placement, the authors often face a challenge with augmenting residual maxillary alveolar ridges. The aim of the study was to compare the amount of ridge gain by the Osseodensification method with the manual bone expanders method for healed edentulous sites in the maxilla at different time intervals (immdiate postoperative and 6 mo postoperative). Two groups were equally and randomly divided with a total of 14 implants (Biohorizons) placed in the maxillary arch for 8 patients, osseodensification was used for 1 group (group 1), whereas manual threaded expanders (bone spreaders) was used for the other group (group 2). Results suggest that the expanders group (group 2) yielded greater immediate postoperative expansion at some points along the length of placed implants; however, most of the expansion gain at the immediate Post-operative stage underwent continuous remodeling 6 months postoperative. The authors recommend using expansion techniques only when other more predictable techniques for horizontal bone augmentation are not feasible.