Requirement of Osteoplasty in Dental Implant Surgery-A Retrospective Analysis

Osteoplasty is a surgical procedure for reshaping or recontouring bone. As dental implants are the most commonly preferred treatment for prosthetic rehabilitation, adequate bone height and width are important prerequisites for a successful implant. There is continuous resorption of the alveolar crestal region after extraction of the tooth, which may form sharp edges or sharp bony margins. Osteoplasty is required in such cases to remove the sharp bony margins and flatten the alveolar bone so as to provide increased stability of the implant in the socket. The aim of this retrospective, university-based study was to assess the requirement of osteoplasty in dental implant surgery. Data of patients who underwent implant surgery were collected. A total of 554 patients (331 males and 223 females) with 1,044 implant sites were included. The data were further sorted with respect to age, gender, implant site, and requirement of osteoplasty, and analyzed using SPSS software. The mean age of the patients was 42.70 ± 13.03. A chi-square test assessed association and correlation. The requirement of osteoplasty was higher in the mandibular posterior region (42.2%) than in any other clinical site. In comparison with gender, the requirement was significantly higher in males than in females.