Bone Grafting and Soft Tissue Grafting

Over a period of time, the jawbone and gums associated with missing teeth and/or infected teeth atrophies or reabsorbs. This often leaves a condition in which there is poor quality and quantity of bone and/or gums suitable for placement of dental implants.

Many patients who had their teeth removed for 5,10 or twenty years ago or more may suffer from this lack of bone and/or gum tissue. This is why it is so important to have any areas of teeth extractions reconstructed with dental implants as soon as possible before these potential grafting become necessary.

We now have the ability to reconstruct bone and tissue where needed. This not only gives us the opportunity to properly position the implants where the proposed implant crown, implant denture, or implant bridge will be located, but also give us the opportunity to choose the correct length and width of implant we we may avoid vital structures like the nerve and sinuses.

Some patients have adequate bone and/or gum tissue in the planned implant area and therefore bypass all of these grafting procedures. For those patients who do not have adequate bone and/or gum tissue, the following grafts are available to reconstruct them before implant placement.

The bone graft procedures are referred to as:

Sinus lift procedure

This procedure involves elevating the maxillary (upper jaw) sinus membrane and placing the bone graft onto the sinus floor, allowing implants to be placed in the back part of the upper jaw.

Ridge-augmentation

In severe cases where the ridge has been reabsorbed, a bone graft is placed to increase the ridge height and/or width.

Socket Grafting

In areas where a tooth is removed and a dental implant is immediately placed, a socket graft (otherwise knows as a particulate bone graft) is placed to keep food from being impacted into the surgical area and to allow the patients own bone to fill into the extaction site.

The soft tissue procedure is referred to as:

Connective Tissue Graft

Tissue from the upper wisdom tooth area is borrowed and placed into an area planned for a dental implant is the tissue is very thin due to atrophy or resorption of bone and/or gums.