Volume stability
The degree to which an augmented site keeps its dimensions over time — measured on CBCT as the change in ridge width, ridge height or graft volume between placement and re-entry or follow-up.
An augmentation is judged not only by how much bone is present at re-entry but by how much of the augmented volume is still there months and years later. Graft materials resorb at different rates; the flap and the prosthesis press on the site; the membrane may or may not hold its shape. Volume stability is the measured outcome of all of this, usually reported from cone-beam CT as a percentage of the initial augmented volume, or as change in ridge width and height at fixed reference points.
The 2016 study in Clinical Oral Implants Research measured the volume stability of a biphasic calcium phosphate in sinus floor elevation; the 2022 study in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology tested whether fixing the collagen membrane improves ridge volume stability in guided bone regeneration; the 2025 ex vivo study asked the same question of a mouldable octacalcium phosphate. The 2023 ITI consensus report reviewed the stability of clinical and radiographic outcomes after augmentation.
Volume stability depends on space maintenance and on the graft not being displaced; see graft displacement.
On this site
Volume stability is one of the outcomes any carrier-based graft would have to report. No such measurement exists for the composition under development; see the state of evidence.
Sources
- Volume stability of hydroxyapatite and β-tricalcium phosphate biphasic bone graft material in maxillary sinus floor elevation. Clinical Oral Implants Research, 2016
- Effect of collagen membrane fixation on ridge volume stability and new bone formation following guided bone regeneration. Journal of Clinical Periodontology, 2022
- Volumetric stability of moldable octacalcium phosphate in guided bone regeneration: a CBCT-based ex vivo study. International Journal of Implant Dentistry, 2025
- Group 1 ITI Consensus Report: the role of bone dimensions and soft tissue augmentation procedures on the stability of clinical, radiographic, and patient-reported outcomes. Clinical Oral Implants Research, 2023