Bone Grafting in Bayside, NY

If you are in good health but you’ve lost a tooth because of periodontal disease, infection, or injury, a dental implant can be an excellent, long-term, and safe solution for you. A dental implant is an artificial tooth root that our doctor, Aram Cazazian, here at Bayside Family Dentistry in Bayside, NY, will put in your jaw to hold a replacement tooth or a bridge in place. Luckily, implants look and feel like real teeth. Once the procedure is finished, they function like real ones too.

Dental implant surgery is often done in stages here at Bayside Family Dentistry. First, the doctor will remove the tooth. Then the jaw is prepped for surgery. That’s when a bone grafting will happen. The procedure will replace and regrow lost bone and can help restore facial contour. Whatever reason you’ve lost a tooth, some bone loss may have happened, and the bone near the jaw will have begun to deteriorate. A bone graft will create a solid base for the dental implant.

How does bone grafting work? Usually, the procedure will involve taking a piece of bone from somewhere else on the patient’s body or jaw and moving it to the jawbone. Other options can include taking a bone from a cadaver source or an animal to take the place of the missing bone. After this, it can take several months for the new bone to grow enough to actually support the placement of a dental implant.

Once your jawbone has finished healing, the implant procedure will begin. This begins with the putting in a titanium dental implant post in your jaw. This can also take upwards of months to heal.

Finally, once the healing is done, the doctor here at Bayside Family dentistry will put in the abutment, an extension of the metal post into the jaw. Then you’ll wait for the tissue to heal once more. Afterward, molds of the teeth and jaw are made, and the insertion of the final tooth or teeth can take place. It might seem time-consuming, but bone grafts are necessary to the implant process. You might experience some discomfort afterward, but the side effects will generally pass quickly.