Assessment of vertical ridge augmentation and labial prominence using buccal versus palatal approaches for maxillary segmental sandwich osteotomy (inlay technique): A randomized clinical trial

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the final vertical gain at the deficient anterior maxillary alveolar ridges using buccal versus palatal approaches for maxillary segmental sandwich osteotomy (inlay technique). This is a single-institutional randomized comparative clinical trial. Material and Methods: The study population was 16 patients with edentulous anterior maxillary alveolar ridges (40 implant sites). Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups. Both groups received sandwich osteotomy with down fracture of the deficient anterior maxillary alveolar ridge, using buccal approach (control group) and palatal approach (study group) with interpositional alloplastic bone blocks fixed with miniplates. Assessment included the mean percentage of vertical gain at the proposed implant sites after 4 months, taken from cross-sectional cuts of a cone beam computed tomography. Results: All cases showed uneventful wound healing and a total of 40 delayed implant placement were done. Results showed that there was no statistical significance between the 2 groups in terms of bone height (P = .43) and labial prominence (P = .5) Conclusion: Both techniques were successful where the mean percentage of 4 months postoperative vertical bone gain of the control group was 79.9% and that of the study group was 76.5%.