When is bone grafting used?

Occasionally, it is necessary to add to the amount of bone in your jaw. Often this occurs when there is not enough bone for a dental implant to be inserted. Bone grafting makes implant treatment possible in these cases. Tooth loss, due to gum disease, injury, or dental cavities and infection, can also increase the loss of bone over time. On the National Dental Care team are specially trained oral surgeons and periodontists who are competent in bone grafting procedures.

You can find more information about dental implant placements or dental implant restoration along with helpful videos on the implant pages.

Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding with a surgical or invasive procedure, you should seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner.

Bone grafting can be a complicated process. For extensive cases, where large changes must be made to the shape and size of the area for the dental implant, separate surgery must be undertaken before the implant can be placed (usually several months later). However sometimes there is enough bone present to insert the implant, but not quite enough to cover up the sides of the implant. In this case, a small grafting procedure can be undertaken at the time of implant surgery.

Your National Dental Care dentist will discuss this with you prior to implant surgery. Before surgery, a 3D image will be produced of your jawbone via cone beam x-ray. For the simpler procedures, local anaesthetic will usually be applied. The grafted bone usually takes around 6 months to fuse with the existing bone. Bone grafting has a very high success rate as bone is not rejected in the same way as organs in organ transplants.

Grafted bone material is best sourced from your own available bone. Often this will come from your chin or the back of your lower jaw. If your National Dental Care surgeon cannot source enough bone from these areas, bone from your hip or shin may be required. This will require general anaesthesia and most like a stay in hospital. Alternatively, bone can be sourced from freeze-dried human bone, or animal bone. Synthetic materials can also be used. You should discuss your options at length with your National Dental Care surgeon.