Advanced gum disease can be devastating to a person’s oral health. People with advanced periodontitis can not only lose teeth – they can lose jawbone tissue as well.
Fortunately, dental implants are a great way to replace teeth that are lost, and they also serve as anchors for dentures, should the patient decide to replace missing teeth with either a partial or full set of dentures. But if there isn’t enough bone tissue present to accommodate a dental implant, bone grafting may be necessary.
This procedure is one of several oral surgery methods offered by Dr. Bowcutt to his patients from throughout the Cedar Park, TX, area.
What You Should Know about Bone Grafting
The process begins with Dr. Bowcutt administering an appropriate dose of dental sedation to the patient. Once the person is under sedation, Dr. Bowcutt starts by removing plaque and tartar from the existing teeth, along with unhealthy gum tissue. The next step involves grafting new, healthy bone tissue onto the jawbone of the patient. After several months, the new bone tissue bonds to the jawbone, providing a much healthier, stronger base for implants and/or dentures.
There is a variety of bone tissue sources available for a bone grafting procedure, including bone that is removed from the patient (typically from the hip), cadaver bone, animal bone, or artificial bone material.
While there’s no doubt that bone grafting surgery is a complicated several-month-long process, the vast majority of dental patients feel that it is well worth going through the procedure and the healing period afterward. After all, the end result will be new dental implants and/or a new set of dentures. And for people who are missing some of all of their teeth, that can be a game changer!
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