Building strong foundations
An implant needs strong gums and bones to stay put. Bone and gum grafting is a way of adding bone and gum thickness to where it is deficient,
This provides a strong foundation for the implant to succeed long term.
It all starts at the time of extraction. Bone volume is always permanently lost and most of it happens in the first 6 months.
Without bone grafting procedures, studies show that up to 63% of the bone volume can be lost at 6 months after losing the tooth.
However, with bone grafting procedures, it is possible to bring that number to only 3% bone volume loss.
This is all possible due to the availability of biomaterials!
Types of Biomaterials available
Autograft
This means we take bone or gum from you. It normally involves surgery elsewhere so we can get the materials we need. For the gum, it's normally the palate, and for the bone, it's normally the chin bone or back jaw bone, but in very advanced cases, we may need to take it from your hip. This tends to be for very advanced grafts and is only necessary in extreme cases.
As this is your own tissue, these tend to be completely compatible
Allograft
These products are made from human-derived sources. A donor provides bone/gum tissues that a company carefully processes, making various products for us. These work exceptionally well and are well suited for almost all situations. The products will mostly resorb away in the long term, but some remnants may remain.
Xenograft
Animal-derived products. These originate from pigs and cows. They work very well and are well suited for almost all situations. The products will mostly resorb away in the long term, but some remnants may remain.
Synthetic sources
Lab-made and completely inorganic in origin, these products work very well in specific situations. Where they are used, your own bone will completely replace them.
All biomaterials technically work in different ways, but they all do the same thing, which is to provide scaffolding to allow your body to make its own bone or gum
The choice will come down to the situation we need it for and your preference
We can discuss this in more detail during a consultation
Socket Preservation Graft
Socket preservation is a technique that involves carefully placing bone chips into a socket where a tooth has just been removed.
Before removing your tooth, consider pushing a bone graft into the healing site to promote the preservation of the way your natural tooth looks.
This works by preserving the bone volume, the gum shape around the tooth and the natural architecture of the tooth and gum interface.
Doing this proactively will yield many benefits.
The future implant will be a simple procedure, meaning you will experience better surgery.
The future implant crown, bridge or whatever replacement tooth you choose will look better as the bone and gum will look pretty much just how they used to with minimal changes.
You will save yourself money by reducing the necessity of more complex bone augmentation procedures.
-
No, when you remove a tooth the area is always thoroughly numbed and so there will be no pain. Most of the pain afterwards comes from the actual tooth removal over the graft process. Stitches are used to secure the graft in place and that can be slightly uncomfortable afterwards.
-
It is absolutely necessary to preserve the bone and soft tissues if you expect to have a aesthetically pleasing result for a front tooth. It is also highly advisable if you have very thin or shallow bone.
If you do not do socket preservation, the bone may shrink and then need a much larger graft in the future, or you may end up not being suitable for implant treatment.
-
it is best to do this at the time of extraction, although it is also possible to do it at any point after the extraction to improve the yield of bone during the bodies natural 6 month healing process.
The longer we wait, the less yield we can expect.
Bone grafts
These are sterile bone particles that induce your own bone to form .
They can be synthetic and made in a laboratory
They can come from animals, normally cows and pigs
They can come from human beings who donate their bone
Bone graft
Sinus lifts
If you don't have enough bone at the back of your top jaw, we can move the lining sinus and place a bone graft, which will allow an implant to be placed.
A Sinus tap is a small way of increasing the bone
A lateral window sinus lift allows for a greater amount of bone graft to be placed
Sinus tap procedure
Lateral window sinus lift
Gum graft
If you show your gums when you smile, it may be important to get the best gum appearance possible, as lost teeth lead to flattening of the gingival architecture.
Gum is taken, normally form your palate, and secured against the gum to promote your own gum to form naturally again.
Gum grafting procedure