Placing a dental implant requires a certain quantity and quality of jawbone. If your jawbone isn’t dense enough, or the bone is too soft, bone grafting may be necessary to ensure the success of your implant(s).

Chewing is a powerful action, particularly with regard to the rear molars, and this action exerts substantial pressure on your jawbone. To handle this pressure, the jawbone must be strong enough to support a dental implant post and the subsequent restoration. A bone graft can augment existing bone to create a more solid base for the dental implant.

Bone loss occurs for a variety of reasons: gum disease, trauma, tooth decay or infection, or the lack of stimulation to the jawbone when teeth are missing. All County Oral Surgeons will evaluate the density and integrity of your jawbone to determine if you’ll need bone grafting to support your implant(s). Bone grafting is performed on-site, and can often be incorporated into the implant procedure.

How Bone Grafting works

Advanced bone grafting techniques provide us with the ability to increase the height and/or width of the jawbone to create secure support for your implant(s). Your All County Oral Surgeon will also use bone grafting during procedures that can cause or accelerate jaw bone loss, such as tooth extraction.

Bone grafting material is inserted into the jawbone to help stimulate natural bone regeneration. The grafted material is absorbed into the body as the jawbone produces healthy, new bone.

Most bone grafts are minor procedures that can be done under local anesthesia. Usually the bone graft and implant placement can be performed in the same visit. With more extensive procedures, the graft requires a healing period prior to placement of an implant.

What material is used for bone grafting?

The material used for grafting can be your own bone, bone from a tissue bank, bone from animals or synthetic materials. All County Oral Surgeons near you have found that using your own bone often yields the best results. The graft requires a very small portion of bone and it can be harvested from the knee, hip or jawbone.

All County Oral Surgeons use all types of grafts and combinations of them depending upon a patient’s needs. In selecting which graft to use, our doctors take into account various factors to determine what is best for your situation. Their extensive training in the bone grafting process and many years of experience performing this procedure enables them to evaluate the best grafting solution for each patient.

Socket preservation graft

The socket preservation procedure is used to preserve the maximum amount of bone after tooth extraction in preparation for future implant placement. The socket of the tooth is filled with bone grafting material to help minimize post-extraction bone loss.

Sinus Lifts

A sinus lift is a dental surgery that adds bone to your upper jaw and is sometimes called a sinus augmentation. The bone is added between your jaw and the maxillary sinuses, which are on either side of your nose. To make room for the bone, the sinus membrane must be moved upward, or “lifted.”

When is a sinus lift performed?

A sinus lift is necessary when there’s insufficient bone in the upper jaw because of bone loss, or when the sinus has expanded too close to the location the implants are to be placed. The lowering of the sinus is caused by its expansion into the upper jaw area as the jawbone shrinks. Usually this is caused by tooth loss through extraction, trauma or gum disease.

How is the sinus lift performed?

There are various sinus lift techniques. All are centered on augmenting the amount of bone in the area. One common technique our specialists use is to add bone graft material into the lower part of the expanded sinus cavity. The bone graft stimulates the jawbone to regenerate new bone.

Not all patients with a lowered sinus need a sinus lift. Certain types of implants or ways of placing the implant can avoid the necessity of getting one. That’s why All County Oral Surgeons perform a comprehensive evaluation to establish the solution that best fits each individual patient.

All County Oral Surgeons are here to help you with a consultation for dental implants with locations in New Hyde Park, Flushing, Melville and opening soon in Jericho and NYC. Call our central office for more information 631.752.1033 or email staff@allcountyoralsurgery.com. We also offer a convenient live-chat on our website for insurance questions and a preliminary discussion.