One of the most-frequently performed oral surgery procedures is dental implant placement, which involves surgically inserting one or more implant posts into the jawbone.
While dental implants offer a number of advantages, patients who’ve lost teeth must have a sufficient amount of strong, supporting jawbone for their placement to be successful. Today, we explain how two jawbone graft procedures can help strengthen the upper and lower jaw to fortify them for dental implant placement.
What Tooth Loss Does to Your Jawbone
The moment a tooth is lost, the nutrients that once supported the tooth are rerouted to other areas of the body, and the resulting nutrient deficiency can weaken the surrounding jawbone. One the duties of dental implants is to prevent this deterioration by replacing lost tooth roots; however, if too much jawbone structure has been resorbed, then a jawbone graft may be required before implants can be placed.
Lower Jawbone Grafting (Ridge Augmentation)
When the lower jaw, or mandible, is too weak for implants, we can strengthen it by grafting bone from a donor source (or from the patient’s own body) onto the target area of the mandible. Known as a ridge augmentation, the procedure can help patients who’ve lost lower teeth regain their quality of life with dental implants.
Upper Jawbone Grafting (Sinus Lift)
Like ridge augmentation, a sinus lift describes a supportive bone graft, but in the upper jaw. A sinus lift includes slightly elevating the sinus floor, then increasing its bone mass to sustain one or more dental implants. The upper jaw is traditionally one of the most difficult areas to place dental implants due to scarcity of bone mass and surface area. A sinus bone graft often makes it possible for patients to receive an implant-retained prosthesis in their upper jaw when they otherwise would not have qualified.
ABOUT YOUR ROHNERT PARK, CA, ORAL SURGEONS:
Combining experience in oral and maxillofacial surgery with a genuine care for their patients’ health and comfort, the team at Santa Rosa Oral Surgery is ready to improve the health and beauty of smiles in the Sonoma County and North Bay area. To schedule a consultation, contact our office by calling 707-545-4625 (Santa Rosa).
