autografts are bone grafts taken from the patient's own body, reducing the risk of rejection and infection?
Dentists must first determine whether bone grafting is necessary before conducting the procedure. To do so, they’ll take x-rays of your jawbones and teeth, then check the extent of deterioration. Only patients with considerably deteriorated jawbones have a need for bone grafting. If you qualify, the dentist will determine the appropriate grafting technique for your case.
After selecting the grafting technique, the next step is to select the grafting material. The grafted material can be autografts, which is grafting material taken from other parts of your body like your hip bone. It can also be allografts from a bone donor or xenografts, which are grafting materials derived from animal bones.
Graft placement forms the crux of the bone grafting process. The dentist will create an incision in the gums to gain access to the jawbone. They’ll then carefully palace the grafted material as a block or in powdered form before augmenting it to the bone with screws, plates, and other stabilization techniques.
The healing process takes place naturally over the next few months. The grafted bone acts as a scaffold to the jaw bone, but will eventually fuse with it to become one. The recovery period varies depending on the amount of bone that was grafted and the patient's healing process. However, it usually takes three to nine months to recover from a bone graft fully.
dental bone grafts can aid in preserving your facial structure?
No, bone grafts aren’t mandatory for all cases of dental implants. They’re only necessary if the patient doesn’t have adequate bone matter to hold the implants. The dentist will take x-rays to check how much bone matter you have before they recommend bone grafting. Patients apprehensive about bone grafts can get zygomatic implants, which attach to the cheekbones instead of the jawbone.
Yes, the jawbone must completely heal after grafting before you can get implants. Healing usually takes about three to nine months. During this period, the jawbone will fuse with the grafted material via a process known as osseointegration. Only after osseointegration will the dentist embed the dental implants into your jawbone.
Most of the bone matter used in bone grafting comes from other parts of your body, like the hip bone. Sometimes, dentists might also derive the bone from cadavers, as is the case with allografts. Lastly, the bone might come from animals like cows and pigs.