Is socket healing conditioned by buccal plate thickness? A clinical and histologic study 4 months after mineralized human bone allografting

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to clinically and histologically analyze the healing of grafted sockets by mineralized human bone allograft ( MHBA ) and nongrafted sockets, correlating the results with buccal plate thickness. Material and methods Thirty‐one sockets were randomly split into control ( CG ) and treatment ( MHBA grafted) ( TG ) groups and, subsequently, into four subgroups according to buccal plate thickness: a ≤ 1 mm and b > 1 mm. Ridge thickness, depth, and height were monitored. Four months after, at implant placement, a bone core biopsy for histologic and morphometric analyses was taken. Results The differences of buccal height ( TG ‐a ‐0.27 and CG ‐a ‐1.17 mm) and width ( TG ‐a 0.55 and CG ‐a 2.67 mm, TG ‐b 0.12 and CG ‐b 1.17 mm) were statistically significant. The increase in bone amount CG ‐b (28.17%) compared with CG ‐a (16.98%) was statistically significant. Soft tissue amount of TG ‐b (54.21%) and TG ‐a (56.91%) was lower than that of CG ‐b (71.83%) and CG ‐a (83.01%), both being statistically significant ( P = 0.002). Conclusions The results proved that thin buccal plates had a worse outcome on socket healing and that network formation by MBHA not only predisposes a successful implant insertion but also acts as size keeper.