Abstract
Elderly persons and patients with bone disease such as osteoporosis or osteopenia have a high risk of lumbar spine compressive or femoral fractures because of low bone mineral density. In the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, they also have a high risk of mandibular fractures and seem to have delayed healing once a mandibular fracture occurs. To investigate the healing of mandibular fractures in rabbits with low mineral density, we performed ovariectomy (OVX) and fed the rabbits a low-calcium diet (including 0.15% calcium) and compared bone mineral density (BMD) of the mandible in the experimental rabbits with that in a control group. Furthermore, we examined the healing of mandibular fracture both histologically and radiologically.The BMD of the mandible decreased 22.6% as compared with the control group within 1 month, but did not change appreciably thereafter. Radiological examination of mandibular fractures showed no difference between the experimental and control groups after 1 and 2 weeks, but radiolucency was higher in the experimental group after 4 and 8 weeks as compared with the control group. Histological examination revealed that bone newly formed at the edge of the fracture margin at an early stage and rapid bone formation was observed after 2 to 4 weeks in both groups. However, the experimental group had slightly poorer and slower bone formation than the control group.These findings suggest that healing of mandibular fractures is delayed in the presence of low mineral density.
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