On the whole, postoperative wound healing in all the rabbits was good. None of them exhibited any signs of wound infection or exposure. A total of 36 specimens were retrieved for histological examination.

All of the implants in both groups showed osseointegration and displayed a good amount of bone contact length (Figs. 4 and 5). No discernible differences were noticed between both the groups. The zone of interest was 200 μm in the peri-implant area of the implants on both sides. Due to large marrow spaces in the rabbit bone, larger volume of bone contact was mostly observed in the coronal and apical portions of the implants. The MicroCT pictures showed a three-dimensional deposition of bone in both samples (Fig. 6). It was noted that possibility of new bone formation was higher in areas adjacent to old bone. The sections of implant, which were exposed to the marrow spaces, displayed either no bone deposition or very thin bone tissue. Newly formed bone was seen with lighter staining. In the surrounding areas of both types of implants, bone fragments were noticed around the implant. These could correspond to bone fragments during the osteotomy procedure. Percentage of BIC ranged from 45 to 67% in both the groups. The median value of % BIC was 58.5 and the MDI group (IQR 7) and control group was 57.0 (IQR 5.0) (Tables 1 and 2). The mean differences of % BIC between the groups were verified through Mann–Whitney nonparametric test. There was no significant difference between the % bone implant contact (BIC) length of both the implants (P value >0.05).