Bone grafting
Before starting a dental implantation procedure, the dentist is evaluating the state of the bone. If its density and/or quality are not enough to support the artificial root, bone graft might be necessary to help the jaw to anchor the implant.
Bone loss can be a result of a long time missing tooth in the jawbone or chronic periodontitis, for example.
Dental implantation soon after tooth extraction or loss can be a good solution to avoid natural bone loss in the affected area. If it hasn’t been happening, we can expect the necessity of augmentation of the bone during a procedure also called bone grafting. During the process we elevate the bone by adding graft material before the tooth replacement. This material can be artificial or natural.
Bone graft materials
The following materials can be used during bone replacement:
- Artificial bone graft material
The name of the artificial graft material is alloplast. It is a synthetic, biocompatible material that mostly contains Hydroxyapatite, an essential ingredient of the tooth.
- Natural bone graft material
The natural bone replacement material contains bone tissue of animal origin that has been disinfected and enriched with appropriate minerals. Thanks to the added components, the material adapts to the patient’s bone tissue and begins to grow in the hole until it finally fills it completely.
- Bone transplantation
The third type of bone replacement is quite different from the previous two. In the case of bone transplantation, a piece of the patient’s own bone is removed (e.g. from the area of the hip, tibia, skull or jaw) and the missing part is supplemented with bone connecting screws.
In most cases, we use an absorbable membrane to cover the bone replacement material, thus creating the best possible environment for tissue regeneration.
Regeneration takes around 6-8 months following the operation.
Am I Suitable candidate for bone grafting?
General health and oral hygiene are highly important to get a successful operation done. In case of uncontrolled diabetes, for example, it is not possible to have this kind of a severe surgical intervention.
Is bone graft material safe and reliable?
In our dental clinic, we use premium quality and internationally recognized bone graft material (Geistlich Bio-Oss®) and membrane (Geistlich Bio-Gide®).
Procedure of bone grafting
- It can take 30 minutes but even 3 hours, depending on the location and the nature of the bone grafting procedure.
- The whole operation is happening under neuroleptic analgesia and local anaesthesia to make the intervention completely pain free.
- After the bone graft, we need to wait 6 to 8 months to get the dental implantation process started, though in some cases, it is possible to start it right after bone augmentation.
