Dental Bone Graft During Dental Implant Surgery

The necessity for a dental bone graft depends on the jaw bone anatomy. Replacing missing bone or adding mass to existing bone is often essential to the success of a dental implant. An implant needs a critical mass of bone surrounding it in order to bind (oseointgrate) to it and deliver sufficient strength and stability.

If in the location where the implants sre intended there is low mass of bone (width or height) a bone graft must be applied in order to maintain this critical bone mass.

Lack of height or width of the bone might have been caused by:

missing teeth- with no teeth in the bone the tissue is not stimulated and there fore bone absorption accrues over time.
Trauma- any incident causing bone loss.
periodontal Disease- or infection that affected the bone mass.
Genetics- simply being born with that specific jaw bone anatomy.

There are 3 typical types of bone graft material

Autogenous- meaning using the patients own bone that is taken from other areas in the mouth as the dentist collects it while he drills into the bone to prepare the site for the dental implants. In some rare cases bone is taken from areas outside the mouth (hip) – but that procedures is preformed at a hospital. this type of bone grafting is expected to give the best results.

Alloplast- synthetic bone. While using this type the dentist mixes in the patient's blood to help the material accelerate and promote bone formation in the graft area.
xenograft- bone taken from cow. Sounds a bit disgusting but this is a very common source. This bone is harvested under very strict supervision and It is very safe.