Preparing for Implant Placement with a Bone Graft

Dental implants are ideal solutions for missing teeth problems. The titanium implants are embedded into the jawbone to replace the form and function of lost tooth roots and lost natural teeth. Healthy jawbone structure is needed for the placement of implants, which will need to be anchored on sufficient bone surface area; without the necessary bone structure, it will be very difficult to impossible to successfully attach the implants.

It is still possible for dental implants to be placed in cases when the patient has suffered from jawbone deterioration, or if the jawbone’s anatomy is naturally thin. Bone grafting is an advanced technique that works by adding the necessary structure to the thin jawbone, so that the implants can successfully be placed – and missing teeth can have the proper solution.

The bone graft material, such as demineralised bone matrix or DBM, is placed on the jawbone location where the implants will be placed. The area will be given enough time to heal while the graft material works on integrating with the surrounding tissue. After the healing period, the implants can then be embedded successfully to the jawbone.

Bone Graft Materials

The material used in a bone graft can be obtained from a number of sources. If the bone comes from the patient’s own body, it is called an autograft; this is the material considered to be the safest with very little risk of rejection, since it has been harvested from the same human body. An allograft bone graft material, on the other hand, is sourced from another human being.

Demineralised Bone Matrix

A material used as a substitute to autografts or allografts is demineralised bone matrix, or DBM. This bone graft material substitute comes from processing an allograft and extracting the collagen, proteins, and other human growth factors. Dried demineralised bone goes through extensive processing steps that significantly minimise the risk of disease transmission.

Dried demineralised bone matrix can take on the form of a gel, powder, putty, or chips, which can be administered through a syringe. This is administered to the jawbone site that needs to be improved or augmented prior to the placement of the dental implants. A collagen membrane is used to cover the graft site as DBM is left to fully integrate with the surrounding bone tissue. Once the integration and healing period is completed, the site is uncovered so that the dental implants can successfully be attached to the improved jawbone structure to solve missing teeth problems.

a href=http://lifedentalimplants.co.uk/team-dr-azhar-a-u-sheikhDr Azhar Sheikh, founder of Life Dental Implants, is one of the UK’s most experienced dentists specializing in implant treatments.