Clinical outcomes of implants following lateral bone augmentation: systematic assessment of available options (barrier membranes, bone grafts, split osteotomy)

Objective: To compare the clinical outcomes related to implants following lateral augmentation procedures (GBR, bone grafts, split osteotomy) with implants placed in pristine sites. Material and Methods: A systematic review of all prospective studies of implants placed simultaneously or as a second surgery following lateral augmentation compared with implants placed in pristine bone with 6 months of loading was performed. Results: From 435 potentially relevant publications, 125 full-text publications were screened and four were identified as fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Three studies compared implants placed with simultaneous GBR or with a bone substitute and one with autogenous bone graft as a staged procedure. The implant survival at the augmented sites irrespective of the procedure used varied from 91.7% to 100% and from 93.2% to 100% at the control sites for a period between 12 and 59.1 months. Conclusions: Within the limits of the systematic review there was evidence that the evaluated augmentation techniques result in similar implant survival between augmented and pristine sites. The small number of retrieved studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria limited the conclusions regarding the success of the augmentation and its effect on the survival of the implants. Properly designed randomized controlled clinical trials on this topic are needed.