Comparison of Calcium Sulfate and Bovine Collagen Barriers for Alveolar Ridge Augmentation

Abstract

Calcium sulfate is a biologically compatible osteoconductive graft material that binds underlying bone graft and provide space maintenance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate calcium sulfate as a barrier compared to a collagen membrane for augmentation of a standardized surgically created ridge defect. For this purpose, bilateral extraction of mandibular premolars was performed on six foxhounds (Canis familiaris). Eight weeks later, a standardized osseous ridge defects (24 total) were created using a 6 mm trephine. The study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at Baylor College of Dentistry. The osseous defects were allocated into three groups (8 defects each): group 1 received autogenous bone graft covered with collagen membrane (CM); group 2 received autogenous bone graft covered with calcium sulfate barrier (CS), and group 3 was used as control and did not receive bone augmentation and was used as control. The animals were sacrificed after 12 weeks following bone augmentation and sites were evaluated histologically for total ridge width, percentage of bone gain and cortical bone thickness. Results All sites exhibited bony fill within the defect. Analysis of variance did not reveal statistically significant difference in the mean total bone gain among CM, CS, and control groups (12.2,11.6, and 11.9) mm2, respectively, p = 0.875. Conclusion Calcium sulfate does not appear to improve bone regeneration in an osseous defect. How to cite this article Heaton ML, Kerns DG, Hallmon WW, Kessler HP, Spears R, Solomon ES, Al-Hashimi I. Comparison of Calcium Sulfate and Bovine Collagen Barriers for Alveolar Ridge Augmentation. J Contemp Dent 2014;4(3):129-138.