INTRODUCTION: The progressive decrease in the alveolar bone volume after tooth loss impedes the use of dental implants for rehabilitation of edentulous regions. This fact is of utmost significance in the posterior areas of mandible, where the presence of inferior alveolar nerve further complicates the proper insertion of dental implants. Considering the drawbacks of the non-reconstructive treatment options, restoring deficits of alveolar ridges by reconstructive procedures might still be more practicable, despite the invasiveness. The majority of reconstructive techniques involve a process of bone grafting and vertical ridge augmentation. Cortical tenting technique is used for vertical ridge augmentation and can achieve a good degree of success.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of cortical tenting technique in vertical ridge augmentation of atrophic posterior mandibles.
METHODS: The study was made on ten patients with atrophic posterior part of the mandible. In each one of them, the atrophic alveolar ridge will be treated with cortical tenting technique. Bone height over the mandibular canal was measured on Standardized CBCT scans taken preoperatively (base line), and 1 week and 4 months postoperatively and bone density was measured at grafted area 4 months postoperatively.
RESULTS: The average final bone gain was 4.540 mm at the end of follow up period with 1.700 mm average of graft resorption. Estimated bone density was measured also at grafted area 4 months after surgery with a mean value of 398.59 voxel value (VV).
CONCLUSION: The use of cortical block graft taken from the ramus of the mandible to augment vertical bone defect in the posterior of the mandible has significant success rates.