BONE SUBSTITUTE VERSUSSTEM CELLS IN REGENERATION OF ALVEOLAR BONE DEFECTS IN HUMANS: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Background:Healing of alveolar bone defect in humans is considered a major problem in oral and maxillofacial area. Stem cells being a new technique that evolved in past years was used to close defective areas. This review was conducted to evaluate and compare bone substitute materials versus stem cells in the regeneration of alveolar bone defect in humans. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive electronic research in PubMed, Booksc.org,LILACS, and Google scholar as well as manual search from January 1990 up to April 2017 with language restriction to English only. Result: initial screening and manual searching resulted in 153 articles from which only 4 articles were compatible with our inclusion criteria. The analysis of the results showed that the evaluated studies are too limited in number moreover exhibiting small sample sizes. They are not include all bone substitute materials nor do all stem cells types. They are clinically heterogeneous so that a no solid evidence based conclusion can be reached. Conclusion: No strong and solid evidence to support the difference between two interventions in regeneration of alveolar bone defects in humans.