Tooth loss not only destroys your smile but can also cause jawbone resorption, where the bone loses its density or mass. Your jawbone requires constant stimulation to maintain its density or volume. Unfortunately, when you live with missing teeth for an extended duration, the bone does not have any stimulation, causing it to shrink and weaken. Dental implants are the most suitable way for replacing missing teeth because the titanium posts function like tooth roots, providing stimulation to the bone, helping it regenerate, and maintaining its density.
If your bone has weakened over time and cannot support a dental implant, your dentist will recommend bone grafting to strengthen the bone and restore your candidacy for dental implants. The procedure regenerates the bone, making it strong for implant surgery. Here is what you need to know about bone grafting for implants and how the procedure builds a strong foundation for a stronger smile.
Setting a Strong Foundation for a Stronger Smile
According to a retrospective study by the National Library of Medicine on the survival of dental implants, implants have a general survival rate of 92.5%, making them a good investment if you want to restore the aesthetics and functionality of your smile. To increase the success rate of the implant surgery, you must have a strong jawbone to provide a solid foundation for the implant. If the jawbone is weak, the implant will not have the strength and stability required to support the prosthetic tooth. This will cause chewing problems and other complications associated with implant failure.
Dentists discourage patients with jawbone resorption from implants unless they undergo a bone grafting or augmentation procedure to provide a strong foundation for the implant. Undergoing a bone augmentation procedure before a dental implant surgery offers several benefits, including:
It Restores your Jawbone Structure
A resorbed jawbone lacks the density to anchor an artificial tooth root. A bone graft procedure creates space in your bone for the body to repair itself. It acts as a scaffold on which the jawbone tissue regenerates and regains its volume and density. Once the procedure restores the original structure and strength of the bone, the implant will have a strong foundation, providing the titanium screws with stability so that you do not have to worry about wobbling.
It Ensures Implant Longevity
How long the implants will last depends on the foundation. If you have a strong foundation, your implants can serve you for a lifetime.
Overview of Bone Augmentation for Dental Implants
A bone grafting or augmentation is an oral surgery dental experts use to reverse bone resorption by increasing bone density and volume. The surgery entails adding powdered bone grafting material, harvested from your body or made in a lab, to areas where the jawbone has thinned or lost its density. The added material acts as a scaffold that stimulates the body to perform its repairs, regenerating a new healthy bone or providing support where bone has been lost due to resorption. It can take four to twelve months for the bone graft to heal, after which your dentist can perform an implant surgery.
The goal of bone augmentation is to provide a solid foundation for the surgical implantation of the titanium screws. A secure foundation increases the strength and durability of implants. So, if you require dental implants to replace damaged or missing teeth, but the tooth loss, periodontitis, or dental trauma has weakened the jawbone to the extent that it cannot support the artificial roots, you will require bone augmentation before the surgical placement of implants.
If you are considering a bone grafting procedure to complement dental implant surgery, you will want to know if the treatment is reliable. The good news is that bone grafting has an almost 100% success rate, contingent on material choice. However, oral surgery has its risks and could fail if you are a smoker or suffer from certain medical conditions. The risk of surgery failure is minimal, and with proper preparation, an experienced dental surgeon, and adherence to post-surgery instructions, the treatment will be successful.
Causes of Jawbone Resorption
To understand bone augmentation for implants, it is critical to understand the biological cause of resorption. Your jawbone is a living part of the body that relies on stimulation from the teeth when you apply pressure during chewing to remodel itself. The stimulation from the tooth roots is critical in maintaining jawbone density and volume.
However, after tooth loss, the stimulation stops. With time, the body starts seeing the section of the jawbone without stimulation as unnecessary and starts to take away calcium and other minerals from it, causing resorption. You can experience tooth loss for several reasons, including tooth removal, gum disease, decay, and facial trauma.
Long-term tooth loss is not the only cause of bone resorption. Periodontitis or advanced gum disease can cause jawbone deterioration if it spreads from the gums into the bone. When the bone holding the infected tooth is destroyed by gum disease, the tooth falls out.
Severe facial trauma can also impact the jawbone, causing a fracture that weakens it. Lastly, some people are born with defects such as low jawbone density, causing certain sections to be thin or short.
Postponing treatment of these issues can cause more dental issues, such as shifting teeth and a weak bite. Also, continued bone resorption can alter your facial structure, making you look older than your actual age. Therefore, if you are at risk of bone resorption, you must act first because six months after the tooth loss, the body will resorb at most 30% of your jawbone’s width. After the first twelve months, you will have lost approximately 50% of the jawbone volume. 36 to 60 months without stimulation will make you ineligible for dental implant surgery.
Therefore, the best time to replace missing teeth with an implant is immediately after the tooth loss or extraction. However, even if years have passed and you want to restore your teeth using dental implants, you can still undergo the treatment, although you will first require a bone grafting surgery to reverse the resorption.
Forms of Bone Augmentation Material
What makes many patients postpone bone grafting surgery is the thought of the dentist harvesting a part of their bone to add it to the resorbed jawbone. Natural bone grafting material is harvested from the hip or skull and entails a major surgery. This alone discourages many people from seeking treatment. However, with the technological advancements in the dental field, you do not have to worry about natural bone harvesting. There are several types of bone material that your dentist can use for a bone graft without necessarily removing a part of your hip or skull. These material types include:
- Allograft or Human Donor Bone
An allograft is a human bone harvested from a donor by a licensed donor bank. So, even if you want to use a natural bone for the augmentation but are not willing to undergo surgery, you can purchase a small piece of human bone for your procedure. The advantage of a donor bone is that you will not need a major surgery to harvest the bone.
- Alloplasts or Synthetic Bones
Alloplasts are made in the lab using naturally occurring minerals, such as calcium phosphate. If you do not want to use a human bone, synthetic bones are the best option.
- Xenografts or Animal Bones
As the name suggests, xenografts are bones derived from animals, such as cows and pigs. Cow and pig bones are the most used because they are biocompatible and have low resorption. You can purchase these from a licensed donor bank.
In rare cases, you can use an autograft, which is a small piece of your bone harvested from the hip, skull, or chin, or the back of the jaw. The disadvantage of this type of bone is that it is harvested from another part of the body, meaning you will have two surgeries and require a longer time to heal. However, with modern materials, an autograft is unnecessary.
The Bone Grafting or Augmentation Procedure for Dental Implants
If your jawbone has significantly degenerated and your dentist has recommended grafting before undergoing implant surgery, you will feel overwhelmed because it means undergoing two surgeries. However, you can still manage because you will be under local anesthesia, so that the procedure will be virtually painless.
Not all dentists use advanced tools to perform oral surgeries, and this can create anxiety among patients about the pain they expect to experience during the procedure. Therefore, when choosing a dental clinic for your dental implants, partner with dental experts who use modern technology, state-of-the-art tools, and accurate and minimally invasive procedures in their surgeries. That way, you will know what to expect during treatment.
Here is the roadmap to a stronger smile through bone grafting for dental implants:
Preliminary Consultation and Imaging
In your first visit to the cosmetic dental clinic, your dental expert will discuss your expectations and answer any questions you have. Also, they will review your medical record to identify the source of the bone resorption.
Also, during the appointment, the dentist will examine your teeth and gums. They will then use X-rays and 3D Computer Tomography scans to obtain a detailed image of your jawbone for evaluation to determine the density and volume of your jawbone and the location of sinuses, blood vessels, and nerves. This helps determine the amount of bone graft material you need and whether it is possible to place the dental implants without bone augmentation.
The Bone Augmentation Procedure
If you need a bone graft, the dentist will administer local anesthesia to numb the gums. Alternatively, the provider can sedate you to keep you unconscious throughout. The dental provider will then make a small cut or incision on the gums and gently lift it to expose the underlying jawbone. They will then clean the infected bone area and add the graft material to the thin section. The next step is to cover the material using a protective membrane for protection and to guide recovery. The body will absorb the membrane as you heal, so you do not have to worry about removing it.
Once the material is in place and covered by a membrane, the dental expert will reposition the gum and close the incision using sutures.
Healing and Integration
Recovery time hinges on the size of the bone graft. The incision will heal within a week, but the bone graft will take two to twelve months, depending on the type of bone graft. You must be patient to allow the bone to fully regenerate and grow because this will determine if the implant will have a strong foundation.
Placement of the Dental Implant
After healing from the graft, the dentist will schedule another appointment to place the implants. Here, they will administer local anesthesia to numb the implantation site. After numbing, the dentist will make an incision on the open socket and lift the gum tissue to expose the jawbone. They will drill a pilot hole and slowly widen it to enable the placement of titanium screws.
Once the screws are secured, the surrounding gum tissue will be repositioned and secured above the implant using stitches. You will go home for three to six months to allow osseointegration to happen. Osseointegration is the process by which the titanium screws naturally fuse with the jawbone, creating a stable foundation for the artificial tooth.
The dentist will take several steps after osseointegration. First, they will attach a healing cap over the gums on the edge of the implant. After two weeks, the dentist will remove the healing cap and screw an implant abutment or connector onto the implant. The abutment extends over the gums and creates space for the placement of the artificial teeth. A temporary artificial tooth will be attached to the abutment, and you will wear it until the final prosthetic tooth is ready.
When your gums heal, the dentist will take an impression of your teeth and send it to a dental lab for fabrication. During this time, you will be using the temporary restoration. Once the permanent or final restoration is ready, the dentist will remove the temporary prosthetic and replace it with the permanent one, giving you a natural-looking and functional tooth.
Find an Experienced Cosmetic Dental Provider Near Me
Bone resorption can be a barrier to healthy and functional teeth using dental implants. Fortunately, you can undergo a bone grafting surgery to strengthen the bone and create a strong foundation for the dental implant. Placing the titanium screws on a solid foundation for a stronger smile secures your investment.
At Tarzana Dental Care, we can help you obtain a flawless and strong smile, even with jawbone loss, through bone grafting for dental implants. Call us at 818-708-3232 to discuss the treatment.