A dental implant as most people know is a stand-alone replacement for a missing tooth. To complete a dental implant procedure an anchor must be set into the jawbone, once healed this anchor acts as an artificial root on top of which is the replacement tooth. In some cases the area which is targeted for the implant implants in Downers Grove does not have enough bone for the anchor; it may have eroded due to periodontal disease or infection. Whatever the cause of insufficient bone, if the procedure is going to be a success, the dentist will need to implant a jaw bone graft.
The best possible place to harvest bone for the graft is directly from the patient. In many cases this bone can be harvested from the implant site or from other areas surrounding the mouth, the chin is often a targeted area for bone; if necessary bone can come from other parts of the patient”s body such as the hip. The actual bone extraction will usually be done in a hospital; the bone will be taken by a medical doctor and then handed over to the dentist for grafting.
There are cases where the patient is not a viable bone donor, this does not mean that the dental implants in Downers Grove will not go ahead, they will. Tissue can be purchased from bone banks where bone is available which has been taken from cadavers for medical and dental use. It is possible to use a synthetic material but nothing is as good as real bone.
The dentist who is responsible for the dental implantation procedure will insert the new bone into the appropriate area of the jaw. Once the grafted bone is in place and all little gaps and defects have been attended to, the dentist will often use a barrier membrane to protect the area and to eliminate the possibility of soft tissue growing into the site, affecting the growth of the bone. It may also be necessary for the dentist to fix the graft in place with sutures or screws which will eventually be removed once the graft has taken hold.
If it is necessary to have a bone graft prior to dental implants in Downers Grove you can anticipate adding anywhere between three and nine months to the procedure but when it is all done the implant will last a lifetime.