Do they bone graft for teeth?
Washington dc Bone grafting is a routine surgical procedure that has been used for more than a hundred years. A dental bone graft is just one of the many types of bone grafts that are in use by medical professionals. For patients who have any issues with their jawbone, a dental bone graft can be an effective and helpful procedure that can lead to greater oral health and a brighter smile. The procedure itself is minor and involves only a small incision in the gum, to expose the jawbone. Once the bone is exposed, new bone material is grafted to it. Slowly, this new material encourages the growth of additional bone tissue, building up the foundation of the jaw. It may seem surprising, but bone cells are constantly dying off and being replaced, and bone tissue is a flexible, living thing. This allows grafts to successfully support new bone growth, though it is also why you may need a dental bone graft in the first place.
When a person loses a permanent tooth, or if a person has gum disease, the bone in the affected area slowly starts to die off and recede. Sometimes, this bone loss is minimal, but if you have significant gum disease, or if you have lost several teeth, you may gradually lose enough of the jawbone to cause the lower face to appear sunken or sagging. Bone grafting will restore the appearance of the lower face and also provide a solid foundation for any dental restorations that are planned. If you have a tooth or teeth extracted, your dentist may place a socket graft at the same time as the extraction. A socket graft prevents the socket from collapsing and, once it has healed, an implant can be easily placed where the tooth was extracted. If you have more significant bone loss, your dentist may use a block bone graft, in which a larger portion of your own bone tissue is relocated from one area of the mouth to another and then secured with small titanium screws. If you are missing teeth from the upper row, your dentist may use a sinus lift graft to restore and maintain the integrity of the sinus cavity while reinforcing the bone of the upper jaw. If your jawbone needs to be widened to support a row of restorations, your dentist may prefer a lateral ridge preservation graft procedure.
Some dental bone grafts use bone drawn from the patient’s own body, either from a different area of the jaw or elsewhere. Other grafts use bone derived from human or animal donors, and technological innovations are also constantly increasing the biocompatible synthetic options that may be used for grafts. Bone graft surgeries are outpatient procedures that usually take under two or three hours to complete and are performed while the patient is sedated, making them painless. Once the graft has completely healed and fused to the present bone, the dental implant can be safely placed. Although it takes several months for the bones to fuse, it takes only a few weeks, at the most, to recover from this simple outpatient procedure, and most patients recover from initial discomfort and swelling even sooner.