Grafting of tooth extraction socket with inorganic bovine bone or bioactive glass particles: comparative histometric study in rats.

PURPOSE To compare histometrically, in rats, the bone healing after grafting the incisor extraction sockets with inorganic bovine bone or bioactive glass particles. MATERIAL The volume fraction of grafted materials and alveolar healing components was estimated in histologic images at the end of the second and ninth weeks postoperatively by a differential point-counting method. RESULTS Both materials were histologically observed partially filling the cervical alveolar third and, although evoking neither a foreign body reaction nor a persisting inflammatory response, delayed new bone formation in trial areas around their particles. By the second week, the delay in bone healing was more pronounced in the animals grafted with inorganic than in those grafted with bioactive glass, and an opposing result was observed during a 9-week period. CONCLUSION Both inorganic bovine bone and bioactive glass particles grafted in the incisor extraction sockets of rats delayed new bone formation, and the degree of impairment resulted from a combination of factors such as type of material and phase of the reparation process.