Comparative Study Between Artificial Intelligence-Assisted/Computer-Guided Versus Conventional Ridge Splitting Utilizing Electromagnetic Mallet for Reconstruction of Horizontal Ridge Defects: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Dental implants are a durable and long-term choice for tooth replacement to provide both functional and aesthetic benefits. However, successful implantation is critical, as it needs a sufficient amount of bone to maintain an ideal implant pathway and avoid vital structures. Vertical and horizontal ridge defects might occur after tooth extraction.

The pattern of alveolar ridge defect after extraction is classified according to the Cologne Classification into horizontal, vertical, combination, and sinus defects. mild (up to 4 mm), moderate (4-8 mm), and significant (over 8 mm) atrophy.

Successful implant placement is difficult to maintain with insufficient bone height and width. Many surgical techniques were introduced for the horizontally collapsed ridges, such as ridge augmentation, block graft, guided bone regeneration, and onlay graft. But these techniques need a long period of time for reconstruction, and an additional surgery is required for delayed implant placement.

Among these techniques, the ridge-splitting technique was performed for treating horizontally collapsed ridges by means of splitting the deficient ridge followed by ridge expansion to accommodate simultaneous implant placement.

The concept of the ridge-splitting technique is to make a self-space-making defect. The ridge-splitting technique was introduced by Tatum Jr. in 1986 and reintroduced in 1990 by Scipioni et al. In 1994, the technique was adapted by Summers, who utilized the viscoelastic properties of bone by applying pressure in-between buccal and lingual cortical bones using Summers osteotome to increase the width of the bone.