Presurgical assessment of alveolar ridge dimensions before dental implant procedures by OPG&CBCT – A comparative study based on fryback & thornbury model

Abstract

Background and Aims: Replacing missing teeth is one of the most common challenges faced by the dental surgeon. The invention of dental implants has brought about a great change in successfully delivering a fixed prosthesis to the patient. Precise radiographic assessment of available alveolar bone is of prime importance for dental implant placement. Panoramic radiograph provides an overview of the jaw bones and is considered adequate in the initial evaluation of the implant site; however, they do not provide the buccolingual dimension of the implant site. CBCT provides volumetric imaging with the ability to visualize the imaged region in virtually any plane. The objective of this study was to compare panoramic radiography (OPG) with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) for pre-surgical implant site evaluation. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 potential implant sites in 94 patients who were subjected to OPG and CBCT imaging previously were selected for the study. The height, width, and length of the available bone were measured for all the implant sites (except bone width which was measured on CBCT alone). Out of these, OPG & CBCT findings of 60 potential implant sites were evaluated by comparison with the surgical gold standard dimensions of actual dental implant placed. A comparison of all the values obtained with the two imaging modalities was done and the data was tabulated for statistical analysis. Results: The mean value of bone height using OPG and CBCT were found to be 12.15 mm and 11.99 mm, respectively. The mean value of the length of the edentulous jaw segment using OPG and CBCT was found to be 8.10 mm and 8.98 mm respectively. The mean value of the width of the crestal bone below the height of the crest using CBCT was found to be 5.46 mm. Conclusion: The overall results suggested that CBCT is better in depicting the bone height and bone width as compared to OPG; however, the length of the edentulous jaw segment is better depicted by OPG as compared to CBCT.