Why bone disappears
Jaw bone exists to support teeth. When a tooth is lost the bone that held it begins to resorb, and most of that loss happens in the first year. Long standing gum disease, infection, trauma and long term denture wear all accelerate it.
The practical consequence is that a site which was straightforward to implant a year ago may no longer have the width or height to hold one.
The types of graft
Socket preservation is a graft placed at the moment a tooth is removed, which holds the shape of the ridge while it heals and keeps future options open. Ridge augmentation rebuilds width or height at a site that has already resorbed. A sinus lift raises the floor of the maxillary sinus to create vertical room in the upper back jaw.
Graft material may be your own bone, processed donor bone, mineral of bovine origin, or a synthetic. Which one we use depends on the size of the defect and the job the graft has to do. We will tell you exactly what is being used and why.
Healing
A small socket graft is a minor addition to an extraction and adds little to the recovery. Larger reconstructive grafts need protected healing and are given time to mature, typically four to nine months, before an implant is placed into them.
Nothing on this page replaces an examination. What is right for you depends on your imaging, your medical history and what you want out of the result. We will set all of that out at the consultation, in plain language.
