ORIGINAL ARTICLE Buccal bone thickness assessment for immediate anterior dental implant planning: A pilot study comparing cone-beam computed tomography and 3D double-echo steady-state MRI Adib Al-Haj Husain DMD 1 | Bernd Stadlinger MD DMD 1 | Mutlu Özcan DMD PhD 2 | Daphne Schönegg MD DMD 3 | Sebastian Winklhofer MD 4 | Nadin Al-Haj Husain DMD 2,5 | Marco Piccirelli PhD 4 | Silvio Valdec DMD 1 1 Clinic of Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 2 Division of Dental Biomaterials, Clinic of Reconstructive Dentistry, Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 3 Department of Cranio-Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surgery, University Hospital of Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 4 Department of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 5 Department of Reconstructive Dentistry and Gerodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Correspondence Silvio Valdec, Center of Dental Medicine, Clinic of Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 11, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland. Email: silvio.valdec@zzm.uzh.ch Abstract Purpose: To evaluate image quality and diagnostic accuracy of buccal bone thickness assessment in maxillary and mandibular anterior region using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and 3-dimensional double-echo steady-state (DESS) MRI for pre- operative planning of immediate dental implants in healthy individuals. Methods: One hundred and twenty teeth in 10 volunteers were retrospectively eval- uated for image quality and artifacts using Likert scale (4 = excellent to 0 = decreased). Buccal bone thickness was measured at three measurement points (M1 = 2 mm from the cementoenamel junction, M2 = middle of the root, and M3 = at the root apex) for each tooth in the maxillary (13–23) and the mandibular anterior region (33–43). Descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA with Tukey's Post-hoc test were performed to evaluate the significant differences (α = 0.05) between both imaging modalities. Results: Image quality showed little to no artifacts and enabled confident diagnostic interpretation (CBCT (3.72 ± 0.46); MRI (3.65 ± 0.49)), with no significant differences between both imaging modalities (p > 0.05). Regarding the assessment of buccal bone thickness at M1-M3 for the teeth 13–23 and 33–43, no significant differences were noted (p > 0.05). MRI demonstrated slight, nonsignificant overestimation of thickness with the canines having mainly a thick buccal bone wall, where thin buccal wall was evident for the central incisors. Conclusion: Black bone MRI sequences, such as 3D-DESS MRI, for immediate implant planning provided confidential diagnostic accuracy in bone thickness assess- ment without significant disadvantages compared to CBCT. Thus, the implementa- tion of no-dose protocols for dental rehabilitation using an immediate loading approach seems promising and could further improve the treatment strategy for den- tal rehabilitation. KEYWORDS buccal bone thickness, cone-beam computed tomography, dental implant, immediate implant, magnetic resonance imaging Received: 2 July 2022 Revised: 16 October 2022 Accepted: 17 October 2022 DOI: 10.1111/cid.13160 Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2022;1–11. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cid © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1 17088208, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cid.13160 by University Zurich, Wiley Online Library on [01/12/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License