Nonprocessed adipose tissue graft in the treatment of dehiscence bone defects in rabbit tibiae: a pilot study.

Objective: To evaluate the bone repair of surgically created dehiscence-type defects (3 × 5 mm) around dental implants in rabbit tibia using nonprocessed adipose tissue graft or autogenous bone graft.

Materials And Methods: The bone defects were randomly assigned to 3 groups: blood clot (C), autogenous bone (AB), and nonprocessed adipose tissue (AT). After 3 months, the animals were euthanized. Histomorphometric analyses were performed, and the results were analyzed with analysis of variance and Tukey tests (P ≤ 0.05). Statistics were performed for the percentage of the bone-to-implant contact (BIC) and bone area (BA) within the limits of the threads.

Results: The results for BIC in the AT (37.75% ± 28.03%) and C (40.57 ± 13.71%) groups were statistically similar, whereas the AB group had the greatest percentage of BIC (83.37% ± 11.85%). For all groups, the BA percentage was similar (61.48% ± 30.89% in AT; 72.90% ± 14.10% in C; 84.23% ± 11.96% in AB), with no statistically significant differences.

Conclusion: Nonprocessed adipose tissue is not a comparable substitute for autogenous bone in the treatment of dehiscence bone defects around titanium dental implants.