Bone Grafts for emilyinchile

[sadlebred]

What the oral surgeon does for this type of implant is not what most people think of a bone graft. He doesn't take bone from one part of my body and put it into my mouth. He uses cadaver bone "powder" to form a matrix to fill in the bone that is removed with the tooth. It grows over 12-16 weeks and will serve as the anchor for the dental implant. There is much less bone loss than if the extraction had been done a few years ago. This is the major advantage of doing an implant at the same time or shortly after tooth extraction. I've never done an implant any other way.

[emilyinchile]

Thanks for the info! I didn't even get as far as finding out that it's not a bone graft from elsewhere in my body...I got sidetracked by some other things in life and then didn't follow up, in part because "bone graft" sounds scary. I hope it would be the same situation for me with the powder even though I'm not removing a tooth right now.

In my case, I wasn't eligible for implants right away because I was only 16. I can't remember what the problem was there, but for whatever reason having to do with still growing it was decided that Maryland bridge was the answer with implants to follow in a few years. Now it's 12 years later, and I haven't done implants. Oops.

Anyway, I very much appreciate you sharing, and I hope all of your dental work goes well!

[boston340]

You're going to have bone from a cadaver put in your mouth? That's really kinda cool!

[Wines Not Whines]

Interesting that so many of us have this issue... I also have some congenital missing teeth and I've been looking at implants, but bone loss is an issue. I did invisalign last year to get my teeth in the right place, but now I'm scared to go to the next step. I'll put that on my "to do" list. I may end up with bridges though.

[sadlebred]

Mar 6, 2014 9:15:29 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Interesting that so many of us have this issue... I also have some congenital missing teeth and I've been looking at implants, but bone loss is an issue. I did invisalign last year to get my teeth in the right place, but now I'm scared to go to the next step. I'll put that on my "to do" list. I may end up with bridges though.

It really depends on the situation. I had a friend that had to have a bone graft from her hip when she had multiple implants put in. The extractions were done years ago. I'm lucky.