Prepare Your Jaw For Dental Implants
A strong and healthy jawbone is one of the most important contributors to a dental implant’s success. Without plenty of healthy bone tissue, your implant will lack the support it needs to function like a natural tooth.
If you have insufficient jawbone mass for dental implants, don’t let that discourage you. Our dentists can help you qualify for implants with a bone grafting procedure. Learn more about this supplemental treatment and how it can prepare you for implant placement.
What Is Bone Grafting?
Bone grafting is a supplemental oral surgery procedure designed to prepare a patient’s jawbone for dental implants. When you’re missing teeth, the connected portions of your jaw lose their source of stimulation, causing your jawbone to rapidly weaken and deteriorate. This will eventually lead to misaligned teeth, sagging skin, premature wrinkles, and more.
As a result, patients who have lived with missing teeth or worn dentures for a long time often require a bone graft to become candidates for implants. The procedure is fast, minimally-invasive, and provides your jaw with the stimulation it needs for healthy bone growth.
How Bone Grafting Works
For your convenience, we complete every step of your implant treatment in our office, including any supplemental procedures. This means you won’t have to visit another dentist for your bone graft, as is often the case.
We’ll start your treatment by numbing the grafting area with local anesthetic to ensure you don’t feel any pain. We’ll then take healthy bone tissue from a donor or another part of your body and graft it to the deficient areas of your jaw, restoring it to full strength. If necessary, we can also prescribe an antibiotic or oral rinse to prevent infection and other complications.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ll use a local anesthetic to numb your mouth before the procedure, so you won’t feel any pain. The treatment is fast and minimally-invasive, so you should be able to recover quickly with minimal discomfort. Most patients don’t report any pain while their graft heals and any symptoms can typically be managed with over-the-counter medications.
A bone grafting procedure is typically completed in 45 to 90 minutes at our office. Your recovery period after treatment will last about two weeks and the bone should fully regenerate in three to six months. Keep in mind that both your treatment time and recovery time can vary based on the size of the bone graft and the nature of your specific case.
If you’ve suffered from jawbone deterioration as a result of missing teeth, you’ll likely need a bone graft to qualify for dental implants. However, patients who have only recently lost teeth often still have plenty of jawbone mass, eliminating the need for a bone graft.
During your initial consultation, Dr. Cortes or Dr. Prieto will thoroughly examine your teeth, gums, and jawbone to determine if you need any supplemental procedures to become a candidate for implants.
Unfortunately, most insurance providers don’t offer full coverage for bone grafting. However, some providers may pay for up to 80% of the total cost, depending on the specifics of your plan. Our team is always happy to answer any questions you have about insurance and help you maximize your benefits.
Get Ready For Implants At Comfy Smile Dental
If you want to restore your smile with dental implants, having a healthy, dense jawbone is crucial. For patients who have suffered from bone loss in their jaw, our dentists can prepare you for implants with a bone graft.
Call our Davie practice at (954) 251-0804 and start your journey to a new smile today.