What is Bone Grafting?

Bone grafting is a type of oral surgery that involves placing bone material in an area where it is missing. Bone loss can be caused by gum disease and having had teeth extracted in the past. Unfortunately, lacking bone in the jaw area can make it difficult or impossible to place dental implants or to wear a denture. For this reason, we may recommend that you have a bone grafting done in our office.

Why would Bone Grafting be needed?

The reason you’d need a bone grafting is because you’re looking to have dental implants placed. Implants are embedded into the jawbone and fuse with the bone over the course of a few months. If you don’t have enough bone to have the implants placed, they will become loose and fail. Likewise, you might have an ill-fitting denture that is uncomfortable to wear because of areas of bone loss around the jaw.

Who is a candidate for Bone Grafting?

We can detect areas of bone loss by taking special x-rays. These x-rays allow us to see your entire jaw and lower face. This enables us to identify if bone grafting is needed and if so, where it should be applied. Most patients who need bone grafting done can and should consider surgery before going for other procedures.

What happens during the Bone Grafting procedure?

The surgery begins with an anesthetic or sedative of your choice. We’ll discuss your sedation options during the consultation appointment. Next, we make a small incision through the gums and place bone material where it is needed. Bone material can be synthetic or donor, and this will be discussed as well prior to the surgery itself. We may add a growth factor to the grafting to help it fuse to the surrounding bone. The gums are sutured and you’ll be scheduled to come back in after a few weeks so that we can check the area to see if the grafting was a success.

If you think you might benefit from bone grafting, call our office today so that our helpful team members can get you scheduled for a consultation.