Safe harvesting of outer table parietal bone grafts using an oscillating saw and a bone scraper: a refinement of technique for harvesting cortical and "cancellous"-like calvarial bone.

Calvarial bone is a readily available source of bone for preimplantation augmentation procedures of the alveolar process. However, the calvaria consist mostly of cortical bone, and cancellous bone of the diploic space is scarce. A bone scraper (Safescraper Twist; META, Reggio Emilia, Italy) was used to create a beveled trough around the calvarial outer table graft to facilitate its removal with an oscillating saw. Using the scraper, copious amounts (>10 mL) of "cancellous"-like bone could be collected. This new application of the Safescraper Twist obviated milling down additional cortical pieces.