Many dental patients are not even aware that dentists often do dental bone grafts. In fact, dentists and dental specialists, such as oral surgeons and periodontists, place about 2.2 million bone grafts worldwide each year.1 It is a common procedure and a relatively uncomplicated procedure.
What are bone grafts in dentistry and what is their fundamental function?
Bone grafts are used to treat a wide variety of dental conditions.2
If you have had an adult tooth pulled a bone graft may be used to fill the empty tooth socket or to repair damaged bone from dental trauma or bone lost to gum disease.
Bone grafts also provide a solid foundation for dental implants, can stabilize and support loose teeth, and can rebuild the jaw prior to denture use.
Basically, a dental bone graft increases the volume and density of your jaw by holding a space in your jaw, working in a fashion similar to a scaffold on which your own bone tissue can grow and regenerate.
What are bone grafts made from?
The materials used in a bone graft can include any one of four types.3 The first is called allograft and is human bone purchased from a licensed donor bank.
Alloplast is a lab-made dental bone substitute. Autogenous or autologous is bone taken from another area of your body and is also referred to as autografts.
A xenograft is animal-derived bone purchased from a licensed donor bank. Cow and pig bone are commonly used in xenografting.
Bone taken from a patient’s own body is the gold standard for bone grafting but has several drawbacks which include “uncertain prognosis, surgery at the donor site, and limited availability.”4
Generally in a bone graft procedure the dentist will numb the area or use sedation. Then a small incision will be made in the gum and the grafting material will be placed. A membrane or stitches will be used to hold the graft material in place until it fuses with the natural bone. The gum tissue is then sutured back over the graft.
An autograft procedure, which uses bone taken from another part of your body, usually the jaw bone or hip bone, is an outpatient procedure. Bone grafts heal in four to six weeks. The bone graft procedure success rate is almost 100 percent.5
Your dentist or dental professional is your best resource if you have additional questions or are fearful of having this procedure done. The benefits generally vastly outweigh the minimal discomfort most people experience post-dental graft.
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So, whether you are looking to restore a smile with dental implants, improve your smile with veneers or dentures, or need to address other tooth and gum issues, you are in the right place. Call for a Free dental consultation today!
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1, 2, 3, 5 Dental Bone Grafts
Link: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21727-dental-bone-graft
4 Bone Grafts in Dental Medicine: An Overview of Autografts, Allografts and Synthetic Materials by Maria Pia Ferraz, 5/31/2023
Link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10254799/