Patients in our study reported satisfaction with the augmentation and implant installation, and as these patients were orally compromised before the operation, their satisfaction with getting fixed teeth most likely improved their perceived oral health condition. This might also, in part, explain why they reported good OHRQoL. Thus, our findings indicate that a majority of patients tolerate the augmentation and implantation procedures very well and with minor long-term sequelae.

The treatment protocol described in this study, i.e., advanced bone reconstructions under general anesthetics, hospitalization, and sick leave, is considered expensive in a public health services. In the present study, an average of 4.3 days of hospitalization and 20.2 days of sick leave was reported, which is costly for the health service and inconvenient for the patient [33, 43]. When comparing iliac bone graft as a treatment to bone substitutes, a previous study clearly demonstrated that iliac bone graft procedure demands more resources and more than three times the costs of bone substitutes [43]. Although the patients reported good satisfaction and OHRQoL after iliac bone grafting, this treatment is demanding for patients as well as health services, indicating the need for alternative treatment modalities [37, 43, 46].