Effect of religious beliefs on bone graft selection for oral and maxillofacial surgery in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: As a plethora of graft materials have become available in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery to replace bony defects, there is an increased demand to understand different patients' preferences towards various graft materials and other contributing variables that led to their decision.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the influence of religious beliefs on the selection of different grafts used in oral and maxillofacial surgery and to deliver a better, more specific, and individualized treatment plan considering various religious backgrounds.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A self-administered anonymous questionnaire with a cross-sectional design was completed by 563 of 577 participants. It was a sociodemographic questionnaire concerning the acceptance and rejection of all types of bone grafts, including intraoral autografts, extraoral autografts, allografts, porcine xenografts, bovine xenografts, and alloplasts. The data included predisposing factors such as gender, age, and religion, as well as enabling factors such as education level and employment status.

RESULTS: The porcine xenograft (63.1%) had the highest percentage of rejection, followed by bovine xenograft (41%), allografts (13.5%), alloplasts (10.5%), extraoral autografts (6.2%), and intraoral autografts (5.7%). Xenografts were rejected due to conflicts with the participants' religious beliefs. Sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, age, education level, and employment status had no statistical influence.

CONCLUSION: Xenograft selection was found to have a statistically significant relationship with religious beliefs, unlike other types of bone grafts.