Influence of preimplant surgical intervention and implant placement on bone wound healing

The aims of the present investigation were to study (1). the influence of preimplant (4 weeks) surgical intervention and (2). the influence of the implant placement per se on bone density and mineralized bone-implant contact (BIC) at implant sites in the rabbit jawbone. The experiment was performed in the edentulous area of the maxillas of 16 adult rabbits. In eight rabbits, the alveolar bone on the left side (test) was surgically exposed and a groove was prepared in the bone crest. Trabecular bone and marrow tissue were removed, and a bioabsorbable barrier membrane was placed to cover the groove. The right side underwent no treatment and served as the control. Four weeks later, a screw-shaped titanium implant was placed transversally through the maxilla, penetrating both the test and the control areas. After another 4 weeks of healing, the animals were killed to obtain ground sections for histomorphometry. Untreated jaws from eight rabbits served as reference specimens. In the rabbits subjected to surgery, the areas (mm2) of both mineralized bone and marrow tissue were similar for test and control (4.9 +/- 1.7 vs. 5.1 +/- 2.2 and 6.3 +/- 5.7 vs. 6.8 +/- 5.7 for bone and marrow, respectively). The BIC (%) for all threads was significantly lower on the test side than on the control side (32.1 +/- 27.7 vs. 47.7 +/- 20.3). The bone density (%) of the total experimental area was similar for test and control (48.5 +/- 12.1 vs. 46.5 +/- 9.3), as was the bone density in the area within the implant thread valleys and their mirror areas (43.0 +/- 13.9 vs. 41.3 +/- 13.5, and 40.2 +/- 11.0 vs. 40.3 +/- 7.2 for thread area and mirror area, respectively). The bone density of the total experimental area in the untreated rabbits was 35.9 +/- 5.2%. This value was significantly lower than the values in the total experimental areas (test and control) of the surgically treated rabbits. Similarly, the density of the reference area in the untreated rabbits was 25.4 +/- 5.3%, which was also significantly lower than the bone density of the periimplant area of the surgically treated rabbits. We conclude that the surgical trauma caused by the placement of implants in the maxilla of rabbits significantly enhanced the bone density of the implant sites. Surgical intervention in the implant sites 4 weeks prior to the implant placements, however, did not further enhance bone density or BIC.