Radiographic Assessment of Horizontal Bone Augmentation of Full Atrophic Maxillary Alveolar Ridges Using Calvarial Versus Iliac Crest Bone Blocks:

Although the calvarial bones represent a nearby donor site for maxillary augmentation of matching bone origin, the excessive volume of bone needed to reconstruct a severely deficient arch, the limited cancellous bone volume, and the arciform pattern of the skull cap that yield the curvatures of the harvested cortical blocks incompatible with the topography of the maxillary arch, all represent limitations for the calvarial graft.

The anterior iliac crest is frequently used for free bone grafting by being subcutaneous and generous to afford ample bone blocks of favorable curvatures. However, the minute cortical overlay and its endochondral origin contribute to excessive graft resorption. Pikos et al. demonstrated that a reasonable amount of graft resorption could occur with atraumatic surgical intervention and intimate graft fixation.

This study aims to evaluate and compare the quantity of the radiographic horizontal bone gain of severely deficient complete maxillary ridges reconstructed by bone block harvest from the iliac crest versus the calvarial bones.