A healthy smile is about more than your teeth. Your jawbone is a critical part of your oral health. The bone sockets surrounding each tooth root are the foundation your smile relies on, and without it your smile can literally fall apart. Fortunately, our team at Fort Washington Dental Associates can provide several types of dental bone grafts in Washington Heights, NYC to rebuild lost bone volume and keep your smile as strong as possible.
What Is a Bone Graft?
A dental bone graft is a treatment to rebuild missing or weakened bone. It involves adding new bone material where it is needed to provide support for your natural teeth, provide better support for dentures, or create a better foundation for dental implants.
Getting a dental bone graft may sound intimidating, but it’s incredibly common. We place bone grafts nearly every day. The process involves accessing the area where new bone is needed, then placing the graft material and covering it with a membrane to allow it to heal.
From there, your body’s natural healing process takes over and your own bone tissue grows into the graft and fuses with it. This creates new bone tissue that can last a lifetime so you can enjoy a healthier smile long-term.
Why Do I Need a Bone Graft?
There are many reasons why your FWDA dentist or periodontist might recommend a dental bone graft in Washington Heights. Here are a few of the most common reasons:
- You need dental implants but don’t have enough bone to support them.
- Periodontal disease has damaged the bone sockets that support your teeth.
- A tooth needs to be extracted and we want to prevent the socket from shrinking.
- You had an injury, tumor, or other problem that damaged your jaw bone.
- Your sinuses are too large or don’t leave enough space for dental implants.
As with every treatment with our team, we’ll go over your specific situation and our recommendations in detail to be sure that you understand exactly what you need and why. We always want you to feel comfortable getting the care you need!
Types of Dental Bone Grafts
There are a few different types of dental bone grafts, but they all provide the same thing: a stronger foundation for a healthier smile. One way that bone grafts can vary from person to person is where the “donor bone” (the new bone tissue to be added) comes from.
Depending on your needs, it may come from another location in your own jawbone, although this can make your healing process more complicated. Instead, we can use material from a variety of other sources, including lab-created bone substitutes. Our team will always choose the option that will give you the best possible results and the most comfortable treatment process.
Other than the source of the dental bone graft material, there are different applications for how we perform the surgery itself. Let’s look at a few of the most common types of bone grafts next.
1. Socket Preservation: Bone Graft After Tooth Extraction
When a tooth goes missing, the thin, fragile bone tissue of the surrounding socket quickly breaks down. This can compromise the bone support for neighboring teeth and change the shape of your face.
Adding a bone graft after tooth extraction is a great way to preserve the shape of the jawbone, prevent the socket from collapsing, and set you up for success with replacing the tooth later. Socket preservation is especially important if you think you may want a dental implant.
Ridge Augmentation: Rebuilding Lost Bone Volume
As we just saw, the jawbone will shrink without tooth roots to keep it stable. If you’re missing several teeth or you’ve been wearing dentures for a long time, the ridge of bone may be much smaller than it should be.
This can lead to loose dentures, a collapsed bite, and strain on your jaw joints. It can also age your face by many years by creating a sunken appearance and even cause weakness that increases your risk for further bone damage.
Ridge augmentation is a type of dental bone graft surgery that restores the jawbone’s natural size and contours. This can
Sinus Lift: Creating Space Between Teeth and Sinus
The sinuses on either side of your nose can sit too close to the tooth roots. This can be a serious problem if you need dental implants in your top jaw. Large sinuses can also make you more prone to infections and cause other issues.
A sinus lift is a procedure to add bone between the sinus cavity and the tooth roots. In most cases, we do this to create the needed support for dental implants toward the back of the upper jaw.
What to Expect After Bone Graft Surgery
Recovering from dental bone graft surgery is usually pretty straightforward. Depending on the size and type of graft, you may have some swelling or bruising in the area.
You may also notice small, gritty fragments like sand or salt coming from the surgery site. This is usually normal and not a cause for concern, but if you’re losing a lot of bone material you should come in so we can check your graft.
While you may feel a little sore at first, you’ll feel back to normal in about a week or two. However, it takes several months for the graft to heal completely and integrate with your jawbone before we can move forward with the rest of your treatment plan.
Ready to Rebuild Your Healthiest Smile with a Dental Bone Graft in Washington Heights? We’re Here to Help!
Bone loss can feel scary, and may make you worry about the future of your smile and your oral health. Our team is proud to give our patients peace of mind with a gentle, effective dental bone graft in Washington Heights, NYC.
As we mentioned earlier, these procedures are incredibly common. They also have incredibly high success rates and a very low risk for complications. That makes bone graft surgery a great way to protect your smile and set you up for success with the rest of your smile plan. Get in touch with our team to schedule a consultation for bone grafting in Washington Heights today!
