Bone Grafting

Bone Grafting

For dental implants to be placed effectively they require sufficient bone. The bone must be of good quality and quantity in order for the dental implants to be stable, secure, and effective.

Generally speaking, the human lower jaw has tougher and denser bone compared to the upper jaw which usually has softer bone.

Once a tooth is removed, the bone in the tooth socket starts to remodel and resorb. After several months, there can be a lot of bone loss in the tooth socket caused by the loss of that tooth.

The ideal time for implant placement is around 6-8 weeks after tooth extraction. At this point the soft tissue has healed, however, most of the bone is still intact. This waiting time also allows any infection to clear up.

Inspection of socket bone

At Pearl Dental Clinic, when we inspect the bone quality and quantity prior to implant placement, there are three possible scenarios:

1. One possibility is that there is insufficient bone present for implant placement. Therefore, we will have to do bone augmentation to build-up the bone in that region. For bone augmentation, we will use either donated human cadaver bone, Bio-Oss (bovine derived) bone granules, or the patient’s own bone. We will also use a porcine derived Bio-Gide membrane at that point. Bone augmentation, in some instances, can fail. The failure rate is around 25%. The bone graft can become infected or become loose and lead to graft failure. In which case it will need to be redone or a different treatment tried. Once bone grafting is carried out we will have to wait around 6 months for the patient’s own bone to grow into it before we can place the implant.
2. The second possibility is that the bone is slightly insufficient, in which case we can place the implant and do bone grafting at the same time. We usually use Bio-Oss (bovine derived bone) and Bio-Gide (porcine derived membrane). Along with placing the titanium implant.
3. The third possibility is that there is sufficient bone present and we can place the implant without doing any bone grafting.

Bone grafting is an important part of dental implantology. For a better functional and cosmetic dental implant outcome, where needed, we always carry out bone grafting.

Pearl Dental Clinic is open 7 days a week from 9am to 10pm. You can book a dental implant consultation by calling us on 0208 547 9997 or by emailing us or book an appointment online (available 24 hours/day).