Anyone, except doctors, gets scared by medical terminologies especially when they are related to bones. This fear factor sometimes stops you from allowing doctors to perform basic, routine or common surgical procedures like Bone Graft Procedure. The term might not be pleasant to ears but, it is a simple yet effective and necessary treatment which you must undergo if you do not have healthy natural bones to support an implant.
Why an Exigency of Bone Grafting?
Dentists usually recommend dental Bone grafting treatments, for very obvious reasons. To understand why they do so, you should realize that even tooth extraction needs a bone grafting.
Socket Preservation: There is an alveolar bone in your jaw, which is a thickened ridge of bone. This ridge holds the socket of a tooth on the bone so that tooth is fixed on the jaw firmly.
After tooth extraction, if it is left open, it starts weakening or atrophy due to no work. Similarly, the jawbone without work losses its strength and weakens.
This leads to loss of facial vertical, and changes in facial tissues results in loosened facial muscles. Bone grafts must be filled in the tooth socket and then closed to aid bone growth, which will keep the natural shape of the jaw and help in future implants.
Edentulism: This is a condition where you are toothless due to age, trauma or empty space after tooth extraction. In such cases, your jaw gets eroded and cannot hold implants firmly. Rather performing implants is impossible or dangerous. The answer is- bone grafting.
Unhealthy Natural bones: Due to trauma, gum diseases, or any congenital defects there is a chance that your jawbones are weak and can support implant only after a dental bone graft treatment.
Portraying Bone Graft Treatment
When healthy bone tissues or bone grafts are implanted into a recipient to repair surgically, rebuild, and regenerate a damaged or poorly formed bone the treatment is called Bone Graft Treatment. Modern bone graft procedures are painless and are performed with minimally invasive processes, usually in your periodontist’s clinic.
There are various bone grafts available, and their use depends on the nature of the case. The commonly used bone grafts in modern days are “Xenograft” or the bovine/cow bone. Other types of grafts are- Autograft, where the bone is taken from the person’s own chin, shin or hip bone; Allograft, where the bone is from any other human or cadaver/bone bank.
The fourth type of graft used is synthetic in composition and nature-Alloplast. They are made of inorganic inert materials (hydroxyapatite), are biocompatible and are resorbable in the long run. They have similar mechanical properties to bones.
What exactly happens in Bone Grafting?
Dental Bone Grafting is a reconstructive surgery with the focal point on reestablishing the bone and regenerating its surrounding tissues. The damaged gum covering and supporting bone around the teeth, jaw, or socket is recreated or preserved by bone augmentation procedures. The bone grafts are implanted in existing bone in your jaw, which then gets replaced by the natural regenerating property of bones. The Bone Graft teeth have defined principles of:
a. Guiding the natural repair job of bones- termed as Osteoconduction.
b. Promote the bone graft cells to act like Osteoblasts- termed as Osteoinduction.
c. Enhance the process of Osteogenesis- formation of bone.
d. Bone Grafts being reabsorbed as natural bones facilitating healing of the fracture, or forming a solid platform, which holds dental implants in the alveolar bone structure.
Dental Procedures for Bone growth
There are various surgeries which can be performed to heal, build, reconstruct facial bones, support dental implants and maintain the natural shape and form of gums, teeth, and jaw.
A. Sinus Lift: Also termed as-Subantral Graft Procedure, it enhances the height of the bone of your maxillary area (upper jaw). To be precise above your premolar and molar teeth, to support the deployment of dental implants.
B. Ridge Augmentation: It is similar to Socket preservation but is performed long after extraction and in patients who need multiple surgeries.
The fear of invasive surgery, the agony of pre and post-trauma vanishes when you understand the terms, procedures, its significance, and the care been taken by your Periodontist and the associated team. They are the people who bring back the million-dollar smile on your face!
Source: http://ocmaxsurgery.com/
