Evaluation of human growth hormone (somatropin) in socket healing: a split-mouth randomized controlled trial

Techniques for preserving alveolar bone after tooth extraction are becoming a part of the usual clinical practice of clinicians. These techniques aim at minimizing postextraction bony resorption, hence, minimizing subsequent follow-up for implant insertion. This randomized clinical study aimed to measure and compare alveolar bone and soft tissue healing between extraction sockets treated with somatropin to untreated sockets. METHODS: The study is designed as a split-mouth randomized clinical trial. The selected patients were indicated for bilateral symmetrical tooth extraction, where each patient had an indication to extract two symmetrical teeth in anatomy and number of roots. Somatropin was applied to the tooth socket of the randomly selected side after tooth extraction by gel foam, and the control side was filled with gel foam only. A clinical follow-up of the soft tissue was done 7 days after tooth extraction to evaluate clinical aspects of the healing process. Radiographic follow-up was performed using a cone-beam computed tomography scan to assess volumetric changes of alveolar bone in the extraction area prior to and 3 months after the surgical procedure. RESULTS: A total of 23 patients (aged 29.1±9.5 years) participated. The results showed a statistically significant association between somatropin application and better preservation of the bony dimensions of the alveolar ridge. Bone loss was −0.691±0.628 mm for the buccal plate on the study side compared to −2.008±1.175 mm on the control side. The level of the lingual/palatal plate bone loss was −1.052±0.855 mm on the study side compared to −2.695±1.878 mm on the control side. The bone loss of alveolar width was −1.626±1.061 mm on the study side compared to −3.247±1.543 mm on the control side. The results also showed better healing of covering soft tissues (P<0.05), as well as bone density in the socket where somatropin was applied, which has been statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The data from this study demonstrated that the application of somatropin in tooth sockets postextraction showed an effective contribution to reducing alveolar bone resorption and improving bone density following extraction, in addition to better healing of covering soft tissue.