Bone Grafting

Bone grafting is a procedure that is usually done when a patient has insufficient bone to support a dental implant. Drs. Humble, Richmond, & Russell perform many different types of bone grafts. Some of the most common forms of bone grafts are the following:

Sinus Lift

A sinus lift is usually performed because there is not sufficient bone to allow for an implant in the posterior region of your upper jaw. This procedure is done by making a flap in your gum tissue and exposing the bone.

At this point, a window/door is opened up into the sinus cavity. Once the surgeon has created this window he places bone material through the window, adding bone to the floor of the sinus cavity.

He then sutures the gum tissue closed over the window that was created. In most cases the implant may be placed in conjunction with the sinus lift as illustrated. This new bone along with your existing bone will eventually fuse together with the implant in a process known as "osseointegration".

Block Graft

This dental implant bone grafting technique is where a block of bone is cut out of one area in the same patient and screwed into the area where the dental implants will be placed. This is performed typically in areas that the patient's bone does not have sufficient width to support an implant. Normally, the dental implant block bone graft is placed and allowed to integrate into the jaw bone for four to six months before the dental implant is placed.

Socket Preservation Graft

 The area of the jaw bone that holds a tooth in place is called a tooth socket. After a tooth has been removed, the bone that supported this tooth rapidly begins to melt away. When a dental implant surgeon knows that a dental implant will later be placed into this area, a socket preservation grafting procedure is performed to reduce the bone loss in the socket.

In many cases a tooth can be removed gently using newly invented instruments called periotomes. Rather than using a great deal of force with dental pliers (forceps), the periotomes are pushed between the tooth root and bone so that the bone is gently pushed away from the tooth root. The tooth then comes out.

After the tooth is gently removed, donor bone is inserted into the tooth socket during the socket preservation grafting procedure. The patient's body uses this donor bone to more rapidly fill the tooth socket with less loss of height and width. The socket preservation grafting procedure can be done right after a tooth removal or a week or two later.

There is a waiting period of four to six months after tooth removal before a dental implant is placed into the old tooth's position. Socket preservation grafting is done to conserve the bone in the area of the jaw that a dental implant will be placed.