Tooth Socket Graft
If you lose a tooth, you need to let us here at Tualatin Family & Cosmetic Dentistry know about it right away. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Some people will live without a tooth for years and do not decide to come into our office until there is another reason why they need to see us.
There are things that we can do about a missing tooth, and the success rate is much greater if you do not put off that visit. Better yet, come in as soon as you realize that the tooth is loose, or start visiting our office regularly. If you have been missing the tooth for years, there is still a good chance that we can help. We just might have to take an extra step or two to replace the tooth. A TOOTH SOCKET GRAFT MIGHT BE NECESSARY
One of the extra steps that we might need to take is a tooth socket graft. This will help you to have enough bone for a dental implant. When you lose a tooth, you will also start to lose bone. Your body will start to think that you do not need as much bone there any longer and will start to absorb the bone into your body.
When we give someone a dental implant, the amount of bone is important. Without enough bone, the implant will not stay. We will give you more bone with a bone graft. A tooth socket graft is a type of bone graft. With it, extra bone is crushed into tiny pieces the size of sand, and then it is placed in your tooth socket. It takes a little bit of time, but your jawbone should start to fuse with the tiny pieces of bone. That will make your jaw strong enough so that you will be able to have a dental implant.
There is more than one place where we might get the bone. Often, we will take the bone from your own body. We could remove it from your chin, or one of the bones in your knee. It is often desirable that we use your bone because that will better fuse with the bone in your jaw. Do not worry; we only take a small amount of bone. You will not notice a difference. If you do not use your bone, there are other places where we might get it from. Sometimes the bone will come from a cadaver, and other times it could be an animal bone. Occasionally the bone could be from a living person, and from time to time we might use synthetic material.
Here at Tualatin Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, we are committed to making sure that your teeth, gums, and jaw are all healthy. If you have not been in for a while, call (503) 878-7474 to make an appointment. By coming in your regular checkups, we can find small problems before they turn into larger problems; larger problems like missing teeth.