Bone Grafting

In the world of dental implants, bone grafting has become an integral necessity into the proper preperation of the foundation upon which to properly place a dental implant.  Just like you would always prepare a proper foundation on which to build a house, the same goes for the bone foundation for a dental implant.  Adequate dimensions in the vertical as well as the horizontal thickness are very important when it comes to placing dental implants into the bone of the jaw.

Bone grafting is also important in the repair of periodontal defects that effect the supporting foundation around teeth.  By properly repairing periodontal defects, teeth can be maintained with proper care and maintenance.  Incorporating new growth factor products also enhances the success rate and overall quality of the grafting result.  Unfortuantely, not all periodontal defects are good candidates for repair by bone grafting.  For more information, set up a consult with Dr. Diehl for proper evaluation and to discuss the options that are available to you.

Types of Bone Grafts

*  Socket Preservation:  When teeth are extracted, often the socket from which the tooth was removed is damaged, distorted, or overtly larger than the implant to be placed in that particular site.  To correct this, the socket is bone grafted and allowed to heal for four months prior to placing the dental implant into the grafted site.

*  Ridge Augmentation:  Many times, a patient may have a site that has been missing a tooth for many years.  As a result of not having a tooth in the site, the bone at the site resorbs away and the ridge atrophys and becomes more narrow.  Unfortunately, these sites become too narrow to properly hold or support a dental implant.  These sites can luckily be augmented by grafting to recreate the needed dimensions of bone and allow for proper placement of a dental implant in the site.  Due to new and better technolgies with bone grafting involving growth factors and other chemical messengers, even severely atrophic areas can be properly augmented now with a much greater degree of predicatblity.  Therefore, if you have ever been told that you could not have a dental implant placed because there was no way to augment the bone of the site in question, give as a call for a consultation to see if any of the new techniques could be used to benefit your condition.

*  Maxillary Sinus Lifts:  Loss of molar and premolar teeth in the upper jaw often comes with loss of a very important vertical dimension of bone below the maxillary sinus.  Because certain minimum dimensions are needed in order to properly place a dental implant, the act of lifting the floor of the sinus and grafting it allows us to regain the lost vertical dimension.  Afterwards, the dental implant can be properly placed.

For all of your grafting questions, give Dr. Diehl a call at Houston Office Phone Number (713) 461-5961.