Do I Need a Bone Graft For Dental Implants?

Tooth loss can bring about various changes in your mouth and consequently affect your smile. Minor tasks like eating and speaking can become challenging. When you lose your teeth, your jawbone begins to degrade, and changes occur in its shape. The teeth adjacent to a gap begin to shift from their natural positions, causing an improper bite. 

Dental implants provide a solid alternative to replace missing teeth and avert the damaging effects of tooth loss. However, if you delay the replacement, your jawbone will weaken and will be unable to support the implants. At Roshan Emam DDS in Palo Alto, CA, we can restore the integrity of your jawbone and enable you to receive dental implants through a bone graft procedure.

What Is Bone Grafting?

Bone grafting is a procedure that helps fill the bone mass deficiency in the jaw enough to allow dental implant placement. This technique is often performed at the time of tooth extraction to promote bone growth. It can also be used in different ways to regenerate bone in the areas of deficiency.

What Are the Types of Bone Grafts?

There are several bone graft techniques, and we can determine the best one that would provide you with optimal results:

• Autogenous Graft 

In this method, your own bone material is used for the graft. This graft material will, in turn, promote the regeneration of new bone material.  

• Allogeneic Graft

An allogeneic bone graft uses bone material from a donor. The bone is just used to fill the void left behind by bone loss and allows your natural bone to grow around it.

• Xenogenic Graft

A xenogenic bone graft uses non-living bone material from another species processed at extremely high temperatures, which reduces the risk of infection and rejection.

How Is a Bone Graft Performed?

Dr. Emam will start with a consultation before determining your need for a bone graft. We will take digital images of your mouth and examine them closely. These images allow us to see the exact condition of your jawbone and enable us to create an effective treatment plan. 

The surgery starts with a local anesthetic. If necessary, a sedative can also be administered to help you relax. We then make incisions in your gums, to gain access to your jawbone. In case we use your bone tissue, other incisions are made at the donor site. The bone tissue is retrieved from the donor site and placed in the deficient areas of your jaw. The surgical sites are then stitched, and your healing process begins. Once you have healed sufficiently from your bone graft, you can start the procedure for dental implants.

If you lack bone mass in your jaw to undergo a dental implant procedure, bone grafting can help. Call Roshan Emam DDS in Palo Alto, CA, at (650) 321-0340 and schedule an appointment with Dr. Emam.