Flapless Piezotome-Enhanced Vertical Alveolar Crest-Split and Horizontal Distraction of Alveolar Crests (FPeCSWT) of Less than 2 mm Width: Results of a Prospective Comparative 3-Year Clinical Multicenter-Study with 239 Patients, 261 Crest-Split Sites and 488 Inserted Dental Implants

Alveolar crest-splitting and horizontal distraction is an established surgical technique to enable implant insertion into the narrow, lateral atrophic alveolar crest. This surgical technique is challenging for the oral surgeon and restricted to crest-widths of 3 5 mm: significant procedural bone loss at osteotomy, the need to prepare a full thickness mucoperiostal flap and milling a baselineosteotomy to weaken the bone for distraction inhere significant risks of accidental fractures. Aim of the study was to investigate if the recently developed novel Flapless Piezotome enhanced CrestSplitting and Widening Technique (FPeCSWT) could safely narrow down the indication for this procedure to narrow alveolar crests of widths of even less than 2 mm in a three-year surveyperiod. 239 patients underwent 261 FPeCSWT-surgeries and 488 implants were inserted simultaneously in the upper and the lower jaw and clinical parameters such as intrasurgical complications, patient morbidity, implant loss and vertical bone loss (VBL) in the first three years after surgeries were recorded comparing sites with less than 2 mm width with sites of more than 2 mm.