San Antonio dentist, Dentist in San Antonio, TX

Bone Grafting

A bone graft is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone with material from the patient's own body or an artificial, synthetic, or natural substitute. The graft not only replaces missing bone, but also helps your body to regenerate its own bone. This new bone growth strengthens the grafted area by forming a bridge between your existing bone and the graft material. This bone loss can be reversed. Over time your own newly formed bone will replace much of the grafted material.

Dr. Knight routinely places immediate bone grafts in freshly created extraction sites. This effectively fills the void left by the extracted tooth/teeth. Over a period of weeks the synthetic bone will be replaced with the patient's own bone...but the new bone is usually more dense/strong than normal. There are several advantages to placing bone grafts.

1) This greatly reduces the chance/occurance of the painful condition known as "Dry Socket" after an extraction. (This is an extremly rare occurance at Mission Family Dental...!) Why? If proper technique is used during the extraction and bone graft material placed immediately, followed by placement of a protective collagen covering, then everything sutured/stiched closed...this effectively places a barrier between the oral cavity and the healing site deep within the jaw bone. This reduces the amount of bacteria and other foriegn debree within the mouth from invading the extraction healing site.

2) After a tooth is extracted, the body will naturally resorb bone from the area where the tooth used to reside. This creates a pointy, thin ridge of bone which is NOT a good base for future bridge/partial dentures. Immediate bone graft placement after an extraction will provide a flat, wide foundation of bone/gum tissue vs a narrow pointy foundation of bone/gum tissue after healing. This more desirable..flat base..greatly enhances the cleansability/comfort/strength/fit of a bridge or partial denture.

Because there are virtually no drawbacks to placing bone grafts during routine dental extractions, Dr. Knight believes extractions and bone grafts go hand-in-hand.