Radiographic comparison of the repaired bone in maxillary alveolar cleft of dog by tissue engineering and autogenous bone grafting techniques

BACKGROUND: Dental disease, trauma and maxillofacial surgeries can cause alveolar bone defects. Among different kinds of treatment, autogenous bone grafts is accepted as a golden standard. On the other hand, because of limitation of treatment with autogenous bone grafts, osteogenic cells derived from stem cells are suggested. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the mean density of the repaired bone in maxillary alveolar cleft of dog by tissue engineering and autogenous bone grafting techniques using digital radiography. METHODS: two, 15*15mm, defects were made in the maxillary alveoli of 4 dogs. A stent was placed in the defect to prevent the effects of soft tissue. After 60 days, the defects were filled with tibial auto graft in one side and mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from the neck adipose tissue in the other side. The density of the regenerated bone was evaluated 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 days after graft implantation by direct digital radiography, Digora windows software (70 KVP, 10 mA and 0.40 seconds). RESULTS: The findings of one-way ANOVA test showed no significant difference between tissue engineering and autogenous bone grafting methods (P-value = 0.94). Visually, the repaired bone pattern was homogenized in autogenous bone graft method but it was cotton-wool in tissue engineering bone graft method. CONCLUSIONS: digital radiography soft ware provides the possibility of quantification of bone repair by densitometry. When autogenous bone graft is not available, tissue engineering bone graft can be considered an acceptable alternative to repair the bone defects.