Periodontal Bone Grafts

Have you ever tried to put a screw into a wall, only to have it turn and turn loosely inside some punctured wallboard? One solution, in those instances, is to find a section of wallboard with 2x4 behind it that will allow the screw to sink in and hold. But what if you absolutely need to put that screw where there isn’t any supporting wood? In that case, the most likely option is to reinforce the wallboard by sinking a wall anchor that gives your screw a firm place to take hold.

In the world of dentistry, a similar principle applies to bone grafts. For instance, when a patient is in need of a dental implant, which requires that a metal post be literally screwed into the jaw, there is only one place in the mouth where the dentist can work to do that. And if the missing tooth has been gone for some time, it’s very likely that the jawbone in that space will have deteriorated, simply because the body no longer had a need to maintain that section of bone.

One of the great pieces of good news connected to modern dentistry is that dental specialists can now restore the jaw’s ability to receive an implant through bone grafting.

Is Bone Grafting Only for Dental Implants?

It isn’t just the absence of teeth that can lead to bone loss. Bone can also be depleted by serve gum disease (periodontal disease). In those cases, bacteria from the infected gums actually begins to eat way at bone tissue, causing teeth to become loose. In addition to treating the periodontal infection, bone grafts are used to shore up worn-away bone and give the teeth a firm seat again. Bone grafts can also be done as a preparatory measure when extracting a tooth from a place where a patient is likely to want a dental implant at some later date.

There was a time when donated and sterilized human bone, or bone from elsewhere in a patient’s body, was used for grafting. That can still be done, but most grafting today is done with processed animal bone or, and most often, with materials that simulate bone tissue—granules, putty, powder or injected gels. Whatever substance is selected gets grafted onto the remaining bone and becomes a framework on which the body builds new bone.

Here’s where the process differs quite a bit from using a wall anchor around the house: you can’t just do the graft and place a dental implant. It takes several months for the body to build up the necessary amount of new bone, but the results of a bone graft are well worth the wait.

That said, there can be times when the amount of grafting required is small enough to do the implant at the same time—just don’t get your hopes up. Your StarBrite dentist will make sure you understand absolutely everything about the condition of your bone tissue before starting or postponing any procedures.

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