
Bone Grafting
Building Up New Bone
How It Works
Bone grafting, normally a minor surgical procedure done in the dental office, is used to build up new bone in the area of your jaw that used to hold teeth. A small incision is made in your gum to expose the bone beneath it, and then grafting material is added. Most often, the grafting material is processed bone that serves as a scaffold, around which your body will actually deposit new bone cells. The grafting material will eventually be absorbed by your body and replaced by your own new bone.
The grafting material needed can come from a variety of sources. Sometimes it comes from your own body. Very often, however, it is bone from an animal or human donor that is processed by a laboratory to make it sterile and safe. Grafting material can even be synthetic. It comes in a variety of forms: powder, granules, putty or even a gel that can be injected through a syringe.
Types of Bone Grafts
There are a variety of sources of bone grafting material used for preserving or augmenting bone for dental implants. All of these bone grafting materials are backed by significant research. They are processed (except autografts, which do not need processing) so that they are safe to use, eliminating the potential for rejection or disease transmission.
- Autograft: If you are already familiar with the concept of bone grafting, an autograft is probably what you’re thinking of: taking bone from one site in your body and moving it to another. This is the only type of bone graft that involves creating two surgical sites: the one from which the bone is harvested and the one where it is deposited.
- Allograft: This refers to laboratory-processed human bone from a deceased donor that comes from a tissue bank.
- Xenograft: This bone grafting material comes from an animal — usually a cow.
- Alloplast: This type of graft uses synthetic (man-made) materials.
What to Expect
Related Articles
Can Dentists Rebuild Bone?
Yes they can! It is very important to maintain bone volume following removal of a tooth so that dental implants remain a viable option for tooth replacement. This is easily accomplished with today’s routine bone-grafting techniques… Read Article