Wound Healing Following Tooth Extraction and Ridge Preservation Using OsteoGen®

Overview

After the removal of a tooth, a bone graft is often placed in the socket to try to keep the volume of bone that was there when the tooth was present so that the bone does not "shrink". The bone graft is sometimes kept in place with a small piece of material over the top of the tooth socket and with stitches. This procedure is called "Ridge Preservation". Many different materials are used for ridge preservation including bone allografts (bone grafts derived from a human tissue donor), bone xenografts (bone grafts derived from species other than humans, such as cows and pigs), and synthetic materials that are similar in structure to bone (such as calcium apatite). The bone allograft and the calcium apatite product used in this study are Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved. This study will compare the two methods used to see how much new bone formation there is inside the tooth socket at about 16 weeks of healing after ridge preservation with a calcium apatite/collagen sponge versus an allograft.

At the end of this study the researchers hope to learn the following: How much new bone formation occurs inside the tooth socket at approximately 16 weeks of healing after ridge preservation with calcium apatite/collagen versus allograft. This will be done by examining the bone retrieved from the implant site during the placement of the implant at study visit #5. This bone is normally removed during the drilling of the implant site and discarded as part of standard care. As part of this study, the bone specimen will be removed as normal but will not be discarded; instead, it will be analyzed for the purpose of this research study. At the end of this study the researchers hope to learn the following: How much new bone formation occurs inside the tooth socket at approximately 16 weeks of healing after ridge preservation with calcium apatite/collagen versus allograft. The study team will do this by examining the bone retrieved from the implant site during the placement of the implant at study visit #5. This bone is normally removed during the drilling of the implant site and discarded as part of standard care. As part of this study, the bone specimen will be removed as normal but will not be discarded; instead, it will be analyzed for the purpose of this research study.