Repair of postextraction sockets: influence of homogeneous bone implants preserved by formaldehyde. An experimental study in dogs.

Small bone sticks from a dog, fixed in formaldehyde from 1 to 4 weeks, were used as homoimplants in the left postextraction sockets of dogs, and the right sockets were allowed to heal as ungrafted controls. The animals were killed 5, 11, 22, and 60 days after implantation. No obvious differences were discovered, either clinically or radiographically, between the repair of the control sockets and that of the experimental sockets. However, appreciable histologic differences could be noted. The presence of the implant disturbed and retarded both the organization of the granulation tissue and the process of intra-alveolar ossification. The attempt to use homogeneous bone implants that had been preserved in formaldehyde in order to stimulate osteogenesis in the host produced unsatisfactory results, since it retarded the process of postextraction alveolar repair.