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Published on: December 30, 2025
A comparative volumetric study of symphysis donor defects, unfilled or filled with bone substitute
Devorah Schwartz-Arad1, Paolo Toti, Liran Levin
1Senior oral and maxillofacial surgeon, owner and head of the Schwartz-Arad Surgical Center, Ramat-Hasharon, Israel post-doctoral fellow of Department of Surgery, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy, and Complex Operating Unit of Odontostomatology and Implantology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Via Roma 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy periodontist, Schwartz-Arad Day-Care Surgical Center, Ramat-Hasharon, Israel, and Department of Periodontology, School of Graduate Dentistry, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel resident in oral and maxillofacial surgery, Schwartz-Arad Day-Care Surgical Center, Ramat-Hasharon, Israel, and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel acting director of the Complex Operating Unit of Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Via Paradisa 2, 56100, Pisa, Italy Department of Surgery, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy, and full professor and chairman of the Complex Operating Unit of Odontostomatology and Implantology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Via Roma 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy.
Objectives:
Background Intraoral autogenous bone grafts are a convenient source of bone in reconstruction of the residual ridge before dental implant placement.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate bone volume of symphysis donor defects filled with bone substitute compared with unfilled symphysis donor defects.
Patients, Materials And Methods:
The study included 26 patients who underwent either alveolar ridge reconstruction or maxillary sinus elevation. Two groups were studied: symphyseal donor defects filled with bone substitute and unfilled symphyseal donor defects. Pre- and postoperative volumetric variables were determined using computed tomography scans and the software program SimPlant® (Materialise Dental Italia, Roma, Italy).
Results:
At 6 months postsurgery, the filled donor defects exhibited a significant increase in bone volume compared with unfilled donor defects (97.7% and 73.4%, respectively). At 18 months postsurgery, volume of unfilled donor defects was reevaluated with no significant increase in bone volume.
Conclusions:
Six months following block harvesting procedure, filled donor defects maintained bone volume, while unfilled donor sites generated defects that cannot achieve full regeneration; even not 18 months postblock harvesting.

