SUMMARY

The objective of this study was to investigate bone response after implantation of MTA (Mine-ral Trioxide Aggregate) in the rabbit mandible. Experiments were carried out on the right mandibular body of 8 adult male rabbits. The animals were divided into two groups (control group and test group). In this in vivo study, MTA was used as an interpositional graft material in critical-size bone defects of rabbit mandibles. The animals were sacrificed on day 30 after sur-gery. The samples obtained from the mandibles were subjected to histological procedures, which permitted the collection of sections with a thick-ness of 60±10µm. The sections were stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin and Goldner Trichrome stain and examined under a light microscope. No important inflammatory reactions were detected in any of the samples of the treated group. The results confirm the excellent biocom-patibility of MTA. The implantation of MTA in bone defects led to bone regeneration 4 weeks after surgery. However, the growth rate was not significant and the amount of newly formed bone was limited with the use of MTA in this specific application. Sample examination did not suggest complete evidence of new bone growth from eit-her an inductive or conductive perspective