Comparison between immediate vs. delayed lateral expansion technique to augment narrow alveolar ridges for placement...

Narrow alveolar ridges pose a serious challenge for successful placement of endosseous implants and alveolar ridge widening procedure is indicated in cases of crest thickness of ≤4.0 mm. The study evaluated and compared, immediate and delayed techniques of implant placement using split crest technique to augment atrophic narrow alveolar ridges.

The study was carried out in 10 patients randomly divided into two groups of five each for immediate or delayed placement of implants. Implants were placed simultaneously after split crest procedure in immediate technique and after 3-4 weeks of healing in delayed technique. Data collected was statistically analyzed by SPSS version 22 using unpaired t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation with p value = 0.05.

Statistically significant (p = 0.000) difference was observed for implant stability at intra-op, 4 months and 6 months post-op between the two groups, however there was no statistically significant difference in amount of augmentation achieved between the two groups.

We observed that both the techniques were comparable on the basis of augmentation achieved, implant success and survival rates, whereas implant stability was significantly higher in delayed technique group.