What Is A Bone Graft?

A bone grafting procedure is routinely carried out across the world with significant success. In bone grafting procedures, usually in oral and periodontal surgery, bone mineral powder is used to trigger the growth of stem cells in your body so that new bone is formed around a tooth or for a dental implant.

Why A Bone Graft Is Needed In Dental Treatment?

Bone grafting may be needed for several reasons and is most commonly used to strengthen a weakened bone so that it can receive a dental implant. A bone graft is necessary during a tooth extraction to safeguard the shape of the overlying gum, and your jaw, so that the replacement tooth can be placed with least trauma to the nearby healthy teeth. And if there is swelling or an infection in the area, indicating that the adjacent teeth or jaw bone may be compromised—additional bone grafting may be needed for repairing the damage.

The need for bone grafting becomes all the more urgent if the bone gets affected or there is likely damage in the area where you had a missing tooth for long or if there is acute gum disease. Through a bone graft, the missing bone can be replaced, and new bone growth stimulated so that your mouth can support a dental implant.

Bone Grafting Procedures for Dental Implants

Bone grafting becomes unavoidable in the majority of the cases of a tooth extraction to make sure there is sufficient amount of bone for supporting a future implant and also to curtail bone loss and gum recession of nearby teeth. The different bone grafting procedures for dental implants are given below:

Ridge Preservation

The ridge preservation procedure is performed when a bone graft is carried out along with a tooth extraction. Dr. Maggie Abadan has expertise in this technique after performing it thousands of times.

A painless and a highly successful procedure, ridge preservation grafting can prevent serious and long-lasting repercussions such as compromised bone support, recession of gums of nearby teeth, and a deformed jaw bone.

Any delay in treating conditions needing bone grafting may call for more complex, painful, and costly procedures of reconstruction to deal with the damage.

At Gentle Dentistry, Dr. Abadan can help patients ensure long-lasting outcomes. Furthermore, Dr. Abadan believes that ridge preservation bone grafting leads to the best implant results.

Sinus Grafting

The vacant space inside the upper jaw, right above the back teeth, is called the sinus. When a person has severe allergies or is experiencing sinus congestion, deep pressure can be felt inside the cheekbones, which is where the sinus is located. In some patients, the roots of the upper tooth extend into the sinus and in cases where a dental implant needs to be placed to replace an upper back tooth—a sinus augmentation or a sinus graft is carried out.

A sinus graft can be done in different ways depending on the amount of additional bone needed to sustain the framework of the future implant, duration of the missing tooth condition, and the number of missing teeth and implants required.

In bulk of the cases, “crestal sinus lift,” which is minimally invasive, can be carried out at the time of the placement of the dental implant. In this procedure, a small amount of bone is added into the sinus right before the dental implant placement. In the next three to four months, the bone graft is broken down by the body and is replaced with your bone.

Usually, a local anesthetic is used for numbing in the sinus graft procedure, though the sedation option can also be used to reduce anxiety related to the procedure. The procedure itself is almost painless, and the majority of the patients need nothing more than an Advil during recovery, and can return to work and routine activities after a couple of days of the procedure.

Periodontal Bone Graft

Dr. Maggie Abadan also specializes in periodontal bone grafting in which damage to the bone or an implant due to an infection or chronic periodontitis is treated.  The set of procedures for this kind of treatment are called periodontal regeneration and are usually performed along with other techniques—contingent on the degree of damage that needs to be reversed.

Chronic periodontitis or severe gum disease can result in damage to the bone near the affected teeth and can cause irreversible damage to the health of teeth in the affected area. Though, in a few cases, a dental expert can be successful in growing back the damaged bone, and boost the tooth’s long-term stability.

Patients seeking general or specific information about bone grafts should also be aware that prevention is better than cure. They should not neglect a missing tooth condition for an extended period because it can lead to a worn down jaw bone, which can ultimately require more complex and costly procedures. Therefore, they should not delay teeth replacement and opt for dental implants.

Patients can get in touch with Dr. Maggie Abadan at Gentle Dentistry for a preliminary bone grafting consultation by calling us at 858-350-7400