Abstract
In an edentulous jaw bone, a certain degree of atrophy occurs causing preservation of its morphology to be difficult. In the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, hydroxyapatite ｛Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2｝ (hereinafter referred to as“HAP”) is applied to such defects. However, most of the studies so far have related to formation of new bones, and there have been very few reports on prevention of atrophy of the mandible. In this study, we extracted posterior molars of the mandible of a dog, packed HAP porous particles, and performed histopathological observation on morphology of the jaw bone after 2, 4, 13 and 26 weeks respectively. As a result, reduction in height in early stage of packing was not suppressed, but decrease of buccolingual width was prevented thereafter. Also, broken pieces of HAP were found,which may have been generated during packing.
