Dental Bone Grafting
Mid-Manhattan Oral Surgery and Hoboken Oral Surgeons offer dental bone grafting in New York City and Hoboken, NJ. To schedule an appointment call 212-696-2677 (Manhattan) or 201-659-6999 (Hoboken).
If you have been told that you need dental bone grafting before receiving dental implants, you might feel some fear and trepidation. After all, messing with bone tissue sounds serious and foreboding. In reality, though, dental bone grafting is a simple and common procedure. Here is what you should know.
What Is Dental Bone Grafting?
When teeth are removed, jawbone loss sets in over time through a natural process known as resorption. Although this process is relatively slow, it can eventually lead to ill-fitting dentures and a sunken, prematurely aged appearance.
Dental implants fuse with the jawbone, providing a stable foundation for beautiful and strong replacement teeth. If there is not enough remaining healthy jawbone, though, the dental implants have nothing to which they can fuse. Dental bone grafting restores the jawbone, giving the dental implants the best possible foundation.
How Is Dental Bone Grafting Performed?
At one time, dental bone grafting was a complex procedure that was performed in a hospital setting. Today, bone grafting is performed in our state of the art office and there are many bone material options. Over time, through a guided regeneration process, your body will resorb the grafted bone and replace it with your own new, natural jawbone tissue.
Under local anesthesia, the gum tissue is gently opened to reveal the jawbone. The bone graft material is gently placed into the socket that was once filled with tooth roots, and is anchored in place with a tiny collagen plug.
A “sinus lift” bone graft is slightly more complex than a “socket” graft, because the sinus membrane must be gently lifted out of the way. However, the sinus lift is still a commonly performed procedure with an excellent success rate and a very low risk of complications.
Can I Have Dental Implants Placed Immediately?
Whether you can have implants placed at the same time as your bone graft depends on how much healthy bone structure you currently have. If you have five millimeters or more of bone, it is generally possible to place dental implants and allow you to heal from both procedures at the same time. However, if you have less than five millimeters of strong bone, it would be difficult to stabilize the dental implants, so you will likely need to wait a period of time for proper healing before having the implants placed.
Dental bone grafting sounds intimidating, but it is actually quite common. Your oral surgeon will explain exactly how much healthy bone you have and which bone grafting procedure you need. The procedure is not tremendously invasive, and the ability to replace missing teeth or even trade in your dentures for stable and secure dental implants is truly priceless.
Note About Anesthesia
You will have the option to have your procedure performed with local anesthesia, where we
thoroughly numb the area. Or you may choose to have your procedure performed with IV sedation anesthesia and local anesthesia. The primary difference, is that with IV sedation you are safely asleep for the local anesthesia injections and the procedure.
Contact Us
If you need dental bone grafting and are in Manhattan or Hoboken, we invite you to schedule a consultation. Call our office at 212-696-2677 (Manhattan) or 201-659-6999 (Hoboken) today.
