Plaster: A Bone Substitute in the Mandible of Dogs

¹ Veterans Administration Hospital, Tuskegee, Alabama; Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, State University of New York at Buffalo, New York; and Small Animal Clinic, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

A surgical fracture was produced in the left mandible of 40 mongrel dogs by excising a section of bone. The animals were equally divided into experimental and control groups. A plaster of Paris implant was used to reconstruct the defect in the 20 experimental animals. Equal numbers of the control and experimental animals were sacrificed at 60, 90, and 120 postoperative days. A clinical, roentgenographic, and microscopic examination of the fractured mandible revealed union in 12 of the experimental and 9 of the control animals. Plaster of Paris did not adversely affect the healing of the surgical defects.