Bone Grafting in The Woodlands, TX
At Dental Specialists & Implant Center at The Woodlands, we perform dental bone grafts as a restoration option that replaces missing bone in your jaw with artificial material. It serves two essential functions: to anchor the dental implant in place and provide adequate support for your replacement teeth. It may be necessary if you’ve lost bone density due to trauma or gum disease.
Your jawbone supports your teeth and provides the structure needed to attach replacement teeth. When a tooth goes missing, the bone underneath begins to deteriorate. This bone loss will progress over time and prevent a dental implant from fusing with the surrounding bone. A graft will restore some of the missing bone mass.
Jaw Bone Health
Maintaining a healthy jaw bone is the first step to preventing tooth loss before it occurs. Through regular dental checkups, we can diagnose problems before they get worse while also providing cleaning services that remove any plaque or bacteria buildup that can lead to tooth decay and gum disease. Your dentist in The Woodlands, TX may recommend additional treatments to help keep your jaw healthy and robust such as oral surgery or bone grafting.
Jawbone loss can occur due to bone deterioration, which occurs naturally as we age. Periodontal disease can also cause the bone in your jaw to weaken and deteriorate. Left untreated, this can lead to more severe issues, including tooth loss. Periodontal disease is the number one cause of adult tooth loss worldwide. Thankfully, jawbone loss is preventable if the condition is diagnosed and treated early.
Jaw Bone Loss/Deterioration
When patients experience bone density loss in the jaw, or if their jaw bones have deteriorated over time, they may require a bone graft. The dentist will graft bone material into the weakened areas to encourage new bone growth. Bone grafting helps restore the strength and structure of the jaw. If the jawbone does not heal properly, it can affect a person’s facial appearance and make wearing dentures difficult.
Patients may notice their faces looking sunken in where teeth are missing. This is because the body no longer receives the necessary stimulation from roots to keep the jawbone strong and healthy. The body will still try to support the area with a shrinking amount of bone mass, leaving the surrounding tissues unsupported. This causes sagging skin and wrinkles around the mouth, giving the face a prematurely aged look.
Ridge Augmentation
The ridge of the jaw is the bone that surrounds the roots of teeth. Over time, areas of the bone can be lost due to periodontal disease or injury, causing the gum line to recede and the jawbone to become less stable. This can cause the bite to collapse lower into the face and create problems with chewing food. It also can make a person feel older than they really are because of the appearance of their smile. A bone graft can repair this bone loss and help provide optimal support for dental implants, dentures, or other restorations. It can also help prevent further oral problems and help improve a person’s quality of life. This procedure is often done with a sinus lift to provide sufficient room for placing implants in the posterior part of the upper jaw. It can also be performed independently if the only concern is a loss of vertical height and if no other complications are present.
Sinus Augmentation
The sinuses are air-filled cavities in the skull that rest behind the cheeks and forehead. They are lined with mucous membranes that produce mucus to moisturize the cavity and flush out unwanted particles and dirt. A sinus infection or congestion can cause facial pain and pressure and lead to more severe issues, including headaches, fever, fatigue, ear pain, and dental problems. To treat these issues, your oral surgeon can perform sinus augmentation surgery by placing a bone graft into the space to restore the bone in your upper jaw. This will allow new bone to grow and more permanent dental implants to be placed later.
Socket Preservation
The state of the socket that the teeth grow in impacts oral health in several ways. Like several other areas of the mouth, the area around the oral maxillary nerve and the alveolar ridge of the jaw can undergo resorption over time, potentially leading to bone loss in the posterior area. This bone deterioration can lead to several severe problems in the mouth.
In addition, tooth loss can affect the jawbone in another way, causing bone atrophy. The ridge flattens when teeth are not there to stimulate the jaw bone and keep it strong and healthy. This reduces the support of the soft tissues of the face, which can impact one’s appearance and make the cheeks look sunken. This also causes a person’s face to look older due to the overall change in the facial structure. These problems can be addressed with bone grafting.
Contact Dental Specialists & Implant Center at The Woodlands at 3117 College Park Dr #230, The Woodlands, TX, or call (936) 231-8937 to learn more or to schedule a consultation appointment with our dentist!