Bone Grafting

Dental bone grafting is a procedure in which the dental specialist uses bone grafting material to preserve your bone structure or facilitate jawbone regeneration. The bone grafting material may come from various sources, such as another person, another animal, another part of your body, or synthetic materials. During the procedure, the dental specialist plants the bone grafting material within the gum tissues of the empty socket, and they may use collagen to facilitate healing. Over time, the natural bone structure will grow around and absorb the bone grafting material, restoring the lost bone structure.

A Dental implant is the perfect replacement for a missing tooth because it replaces the tooth’s root structure instead of the crown. The dentist attaches a titanium post into the jawbone under the empty socket of the missing bone. Your jawbone will eventually heal around the titanium post, making it a part of your dental structure and anatomy. Once your jawbone heals, the dentist attaches a porcelain dental crown over the titanium post. As such, a dental implant is the permanent replacement for a lost tooth. It looks and functions just like an actual tooth.

However, you can only get dental implants if you have enough jawbone to support the titanium post. Unfortunately, you start losing bone structure the moment you lose your tooth, whether that’s through dental extraction, dental decay, or any other reason. You lose up to 25% of your jawbone structure within the first year after tooth loss. As such, if you don’t get dental implants soon after the extraction or tooth loss, you may not have enough jawbone to support dental implants, necessitating a bone graft for dental implants.

• Tooth extraction and bone grafting often go together to preserve the jawbone structure.
• Prevent the loss of jawbone structure.
• Ensuring you have enough jawbone structure to get dental implants.
• Providing enough bone to support a tooth replacement.
• Ensuring your natural bone continues growing.

• During your initial consultation, the dental specialist will take x-rays of your teeth and jawbone structure to determine the state of your bones.
• The dentist will discuss all of your bone grafting options, including the benefits and costs of different bone grafting materials. You can choose dental bone grafting materials from another part of your body, an animal, another individual, or synthetic materials.
• The exact steps of the dental bone graft procedure may vary, but the broad structure remains the same. The dentist will create an incision on the gum tissues around the affected region and plant the bone grafting material within the socket.
• The dentist may plant some collagen with the bone grafting material to facilitate bone regeneration.
• The dental specialist will suture up the wound.
• Over repeated sessions, your dentist will examine your progress. Once your jawbone has healed and grown, you can get dental implants.