Bone Healing in Healthy and Post-menopausal Osteoporotic Women

Both the pathogenesis and the treatment of osteoporosis may potentially interfere at different levels on the multi-stage complex cascade of events involved in bone healing/regeneration. To our knowledge no human studies have been performed to clarify the potential effect of osteoporosis on post-extraction alveolar healing. The primary outcome of the study is to compare alveolar bone changes in width and height 3 months after tooth extraction in 10 post-menopausal osteoporotic women and 10 post menopausal non osteoporotic women by the use of cone-beam computer tomography (CBCT) images. The secondary outcomes considered are: clinical changes in the external contour of the ridge and periodontal parameters in the neighbouring teeth after a tooth extraction and 3 months later. In addition the accuracy of panoramic morphometric indexes in detecting osteoporosis will be measured.