In order to have healthy, successful dental implants, you might need to complete some preliminary treatments first. For example, if you have gum disease, you’ll need periodontal therapy; if you have one or more cavities, you’ll need a filling or two; and if your jawbone is weak, you might need a bone graft.
Bone grafts aren’t exactly common dental treatments, so you might be wondering what it is and how it would benefit you. For the answers to make any sense, you’ll need to know three facts.
1: Tooth Loss Can Cause Jawbone Deterioration
Every natural tooth is connected to the jawbone via a dental root. Normally, the act of chewing stimulates your jawbone by transferring pressure from your tooth along this dental root. However, when the tooth and root are dislodged, that portion of the bone doesn’t receive stimulation, and is no longer able to receive essential nutrients. As a result, it starts to be reabsorbed by your body – or in other words, deteriorate.
2: Dental Implants Require Strong Jawbone Support
This can be a problem for dental implants because they’re specifically designed to connect to your jaw much like a dental root. The posts are made from biocompatible titanium, enabling your jawbone to fuse with the metal and grow around it. If the bone is too thin due to deterioration, though, it won’t be able to properly support or fuse with the implant posts. This problem will ultimately cause your restoration to fail and could even damage your bone or the surrounding nerves.
3: A Bone Graft Can Add Mass to Your Jaw
In dentistry, a bone graft treatment involves taking bone matter from another part of your body or some other external source and attaching (or “grafting”) it onto your jaw. With the additional mass, patients who previously didn’t qualify for dental implants because of jawbone weakness can become perfect candidates.
Moral of the story? Even if you think you wouldn’t be a good fit for dental implants, it’s worth talking with your dentist about your options! Preliminary treatments like bone grafting could help you receive the beautiful, reliable smile you’ve always wanted.
About the Practice
Each of our specialists at South Florida Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery is a board-certified oral surgeon. Basically, that means they’re recognized as experts when it comes to treatments like dental implants and bone grafts! If you need more jawbone mass in order to support successful implants, our professionals would be happy to lend you their top-notch skills so you can receive the best restoration modern technology has to offer. Contact our office today at 561-203-5744 or request an appointment online to get started!