Bone Grafting

Bone Grafting Chantilly & South Riding Virginia 

Just as doing regular exercise keeps your muscles strong, similarly, regular use maintains the health of your bone tissue. Your natural teeth when embedded in your jawbone stimulate it through various activities including biting and chewing. When you lose your teeth, the underlying bone doesn’t receive the required stimulation and with time it may atrophy and break down. This may also develop into various additional problems.

Problems due to Loss of Teeth and Jawbone

  • Problems related to remaining teeth such as drifting, misalignment, loss, and loosening
  • Collapsed profile of the face
  • Limited support to the lips
  • Wrinkling of skin around your mouth
  • Distortion of other features of the face
  • Jaw pain, headaches, and facial pain
  • Difficulty communicating and speaking
  • Sinus expansion
  • Inadequate nutrition due to inability to eat and chew properly without pain
  • Changes in the taste of foods

Bone Grafting Procedure for Dental Implants

Prolonged loss of teeth may cause atrophy of your jaw bone as a natural tooth’s root should be present for stimulating the bone. If you don’t have enough stable jaw bone and you need dental implants then you may require a bone grafting procedure before placement of dental implants in your oral cavity. This is to ensure that you have a stable and permanent dental implant placement. Once the site of bone grafting heals and an implant is placed, then it will help in maintaining your jaw bone; thereby, putting an end to the cycle of loss of bone.

Different Kinds of Bone Grafting Procedures

A common initial step in the process of implant placement is the grafting of bone around the teeth and jaws. In bone grafting, a solution of bone material (granulated) or other types of healing ingredients is applied to the regions that need more bone. The material that is commonly used for bone grafting in dental implants is obtained either from a tissue (bone) bank; and can be human, animal or plant based. More infrequently, it can also be taken from another region in your body. In certain cases, bone grafting may be accomplished by using isolated proteins which can stimulate bone growth without using bone!  In certain cases, surgeons may use synthetic materials for a bone graft like bone morphogenetic proteins. This eliminates the requirement to obtain bone from a bone bank or other sites in your body.

Several kinds of bone grafting procedures are done to meet the needs of the patient. These may include:

Ridge Augmentation

The bone surrounding the root of a tooth is known as the alveolar ridge. After tooth removal, an empty socket is left in the jaw’s alveolar ridge bone. Usually, this socket heals by itself and gets filled with tissue and bone. In some cases, the socket is not able to heal and it could break. In the ridge augmentation procedure, the natural shape of your jaws and gums is recreated following the loss of bone due to the extraction of a tooth or other reasons. During this bone grafting procedure, the surgeon inserts the bone graft material into this area to stimulate the growth of bone.

Sinus Lift

This procedure is used to add bone to the upper jaw areas (in the premolar and molar areas). These areas are usually difficult areas to put dental implants successfully due to lack of sufficient quantity and quality of bone. Sinus lift procedure helps in raising your sinus floor and developing bone for the placement of dental implants.

Socket preservation

In cases where bone loss occurs after tooth extraction or loss, the procedure of bone grafting can help in reinforcing the bone in the hollow tooth socket. In some cases, the surgeon may fill bone graft material into the tooth socket immediately after tooth extraction so that the site can be prepared for an implant.

Grafting using bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs)

Bone morphogenic proteins are naturally occurring proteins that are present in your bones. They can be utilized in the bone grafting procedure as a replacement for real bone. These ingredients are safe and can increase the support provided by the jaw bone that is needed for the successful placement of a dental implant. During grafting using BMPs, the grafting ingredient is placed in a sponge, which is then placed onto the bone that needs growth. Once the new or graft bone finishes growing your jaw is ready to successfully support implants.

Grafting of soft tissue:

Untreated gum loss may result in nerve damage or tooth loss. Hence, to repair the damage of gums and to prevent any further problems your surgeon may recommend grafting of soft tissues. Similar to a bone graft, your surgeon will utilize a sample of soft tissue obtained from your mouth’s roof and place it where it is required in the gums. Grafting of soft tissue helps in promoting healing around your dental implant and ensuring a long-term and healthy result

While having your consultation appointment for the dental implant your surgeon will evaluate you carefully and will recommend you the best kind of bone grafting procedure for your problem.

Bone grafting procedure can make tooth implants a choice for patients who have a bone deficiency or bone loss. With these procedures, you get a foundation of a healthy bone that is important for the stability of tooth implants in the long-term.