Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone with a material called a bone graft. This material not only replaces missing bone, but also helps your body regrow lost bone. This new bone growth strengthens the grafted area by forming a bridge between your existing bone and the graft. Over time the newly formed bone will replace much of the grafted material. Guided bone regeneration (GBR) is a procedure in which a membrane is placed over the bone graft site. This membrane further encourages new bone to grow and also prevents the growth of scar tissue in the grafted site.

WHY ARE BONE GRAFTS AND GBR NEEDED?

Bone grafts and GBR are needed when a part of your body is missing bone. This missing portion of bone is frequently called a “bony defect”. Examples of jaw bone defects are: defects surrounding roots of teeth (periodontal defects); defects which occur following tooth extraction; generalized decrease in quantity of jaw bone from trauma or long-term tooth loss; defects surrounding dental implants; defects resulting from cyst or tumor surgery.

BONE GRAFTING PROCEDURES

Step 1.

The tooth is removed and the remaining tooth socket is thoroughly cleaned of all inflamed and infected tissue

Step 2.

An appropriate bone grafting material  is carefully placed into the extraction socket.

Step 3.

GBR membrane is often placed over the grafted material.

Step 4.

Sutures placed into the gum tissue allow proper healing of the surrounding soft tissues.

BONE GRAFTING – FAQ

Certainly the larger procedures can be predicted and planned well in advance; however, the smaller grafts done at the time of implant placement cannot always be predicted, and must be available to the surgeon in order to give your implant the best chance of success. It is vitally important that you and your dentist agree on this point before the start of the surgery.

Where does grafted bone come from?

Bone graft material comes from four general sources; your own available bone, freeze dried human bone from a tissue bank, processed bone elements from animals, and, finally, a mineral bone substitute.

Is bone grafting safe?

The safest, and most desirable source of bone grafting material comes from your own body. The act of drilling the jawbone for placing the implant naturally produces bone shavings. These shavings can be cleanly collected and used as grafting materials. In the cases of larger grafts, surgical procedures have been developed to harvest additional bone from other places in your body.

Also completely sterile, although the least effective, are mineral bone substitutes. You will be interested to know that the most popular mineral graft materials do not remain in the body, but are naturally absorbed by the body and replaced by healthy bone.

Consider receiving human donor bone or animal bone elements to be the same as receiving blood from the blood bank, with a similar level of risk. The processing techniques used to prepare the freeze dried bone and the animal bone elements results in graft materials which have proven to be extremely safe. Also, only materials from a reputable, well managed national tissue bank are used. There is, theoretically, an extremely small chance that infectious disease could be transmitted through either of these materials.