Bone Grafting For Dental Implants In Midtown Manhattan

About Bone Grafting In NYC

What is Bone Grafting?

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone. Bone grafts may be autologous (bone harvested from the patient’s own body), allograft (cadaver bone usually obtained from a bone bank), or synthetic (often made of hydroxyapatite or other naturally occurring and biocompatible substances). Most bone grafts are expected to be reabsorbed and replaced as the natural bone heals over a few months’ time. Bone grafting is possible because bone tissue, unlike most other tissues, has the ability to regenerate completely if provided the space into which to grow. As native bone grows, it will generally replace the graft material completely, resulting in a fully integrated region of the new bone.

Dental implants require bone underneath them for support and proper integration into the mouth. People who have been edentulous (without teeth) for a prolonged period may not have enough bone left in the necessary locations.

With bone grafting, we now have the opportunity to replace bone where it is missing and this gives us the opportunity to place implants where they are needed to restore both function and aesthetics.

Types of Bone Grafting Procedures:

Socket Preservation

Preserving Your Jaw Bone after Extraction

Sometimes teeth have to be removed because of infection, pain, periodontal disease, or due to a fracture in a tooth. Often the bone that surrounds a tooth that is to be removed is often damaged by disease-causing a defect in the jaw bone around that tooth. In addition, after a tooth is extracted the surrounding bone and gums can shrink and recede very quickly, resulting in further damage to the jaw bone and can also cause a collapse of the lips and cheeks.

These jaw defects can create major obstacles in performing restorative dentistry. Missing bone will make it difficult to place dental implants and to fabricate well fitting bridges and dentures.

Many of these jaw defects can be prevented by a procedure called socket preservation at the time of tooth removable. Socket preservation can increase your chances for having successful dental implants, bridges, or dentures and thus can increase your chances of having better functioning and better-looking teeth.

Several techniques can be used to preserve the bone and minimize bone loss after an extraction. In one common method, the tooth is removed and the socket is filled with bone or bone substitute. It is then covered with gum, artificial membrane, or tissue, which encourages your body’s natural ability to repair the socket. With this method, the socket heals, eliminating shrinkage and collapse of the surrounding gum and facial tissues. The newly formed bone in the socket also provides a foundation for an implant to replace the tooth. If your dentist has recommended tooth removal, be sure to ask if socket preservation is necessary. This is particularly important if you are planning on replacing the front teeth.

Ridge Augmentation

What is Ridge Augmentation?

Ridge augmentation can recapture the natural contour of your gums and jaw after the loss of a tooth as a result of trauma, congenital anomalies, infection, or periodontal disease. Achieving an ideal amount of gum and bone as a support to surrounding restorations or implants may require hard and soft tissue reconstruction. After the loss of one or more teeth, your gums and jawbone may become indented where the tooth or teeth used to be. This occurs because the jawbone recedes when it no longer is holding a tooth in place. Not only is this indentation unnatural looking, it also causes the replacement tooth to look too long compared to the adjacent teeth, and this can create an area that is difficult to keep clean.

Ridge augmentation uses bone and tissue grafting procedures to fill in the indented area of the jaw and gums, leaving you with a smooth gum line that coexists with your restoration or dental implant.

How is ridge augmentation done?

At Herald Square Dental, our expert dental team can utilize a variety of surgical procedures in ridge augmentation. The surgical procedure will depend on the amount of available bone, the amount of augmentation necessary and patient related factors.

The most common techniques include:

• Guided Bone Regeneration: This procedure involves the use of bone replacement grafts along with biologic collagen membranes that help maintain the shape of the ridge and exclude the oral epithelium from invading the graft
• Block Grafts: Block grafts are bone replacement grafts that are used in the form of a solid block, the source of this block can be autogenous (from the patient) or in the form of a preprocessed block.
• Ridge Split/Expansion: This procedure involves expanding the existing bone to allow for bone growth in between the expanded segments.
• Biologic Factors: Biologic factors that are either synthetic or from the patient’s own plasma can be used to enhance the results
• Soft Tissue Augmentation: The soft tissues of the oral cavity play a vital role in esthetics and stability of both teeth and restorations. Soft tissue augmentation can be performed using the patient’s own soft tissues or in the form of preprocessed grafts.

Sinus graft or Sinus Lift Graft

What is a Sinus Lift?

A sinus lift is done when there is not enough bone height in the upper jaw, or the sinuses are too close to the jaw, for NYC dental implants to be placed.

What is the maxillary sinus?

The maxillary jaw bone has two (right and left) cavities, these cavities are usually filled with air and are the largest of the paranasal sinuses. Researchers believe that the paranasal sinuses help reduce the weight of the skull, allow for resonance, and warm inhaled air.

Who needs a sinus lift?

Following tooth extraction, the maxillary sinuses tend to expand into the jaw bone. Sometimes the expansion of the maxillary sinus happens extensively to a degree that prevents implant placement. Dental implants are inserted into the bone and when the amount of bone is not enough to hold an implant, a sinus lift is indicated.

How is a sinus lift performed?

There are generally two main methods to performing sinus lifts

• Internal sinus lift: This is almost always performed at the same time as implant placement, the cavity formed by implant surgery is used to access the floor of the maxillary sinus and help lift it.
• External sinus lift: This is either performed as a separate procedure or concomitantly with implant placement. A separate access is utilized to lift the floor of the sinus cavity and allow for bone grafting.

The choice of methods will depend on the amount of bone already available, the amount of augmentation necessary, the anatomy of the sinus, the number of implants to be placed, and patient factors.

How would a sinus lift affect my sinuses?

A large number of patients are under the impression that sinus lift procedures are very invasive, and might affect their sinuses significantly. Usually, however, this is not the case. Discomfort in the first few days following surgery are not uncommon, but long term complication is extremely rare.