Your jawbone is literally the foundation of healthy teeth. If it’s not healthy, they’re not healthy. When your jaw has suffered significant decay, you can begin to lose bone in the area. This will not only impact the functioning of your mouth, it will also prevent you from recapturing your smile through dental implants. Like your teeth roots, implants are anchored in your jawbone. When you’re missing teeth, your jawbone can start to deteriorate quickly—up to 50 percent of the bone you need to qualify for dental implants can be lost in less than a year!
We perform bone grafting in the serene, spa-like setting of our Bluffton, SC office, taking bone from your own body, a donor, or other natural sources and placing it in the area where you’ve lost bone. Eventually the added bone becomes a part of your body, enabling our specialist to place your dental implants, and you to have a full, healthy, gorgeous set of teeth again. From bone grafting to dental implant placement, we provide expert, comprehensive dental implant care in one convenient location.
What is a dental bone graft?
We use a several techniques to bring back your jawbone—and restore your distinctive appearance. Plasma-rich growth factors are proteins that occur naturally in your blood. We use plasma-rich growth factors to accelerate recovery after bone grafting and other procedures. We draw platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) from your blood by separating those elements with a centrifuge before adding them into the treatment site to help your body heal. Bone loss in your upper jaw may also cause your sinus to collapse. To correct this, we perform a sinus lift, where we carefully lift your sinus cavity with a delicate instrument and place bone graft material underneath. Once the bone has regenerated after your sinus lift procedure, you’ll be able to receive dental implants. If your bone loss is so severe that your facial aesthetics are compromised we can use bone grafts to restore the natural, smooth shape of your jaw in a process called ridge augmentation. Through our experience in cosmetic restorative dentistry and implant dentistry, we’ve helped many patients just like you be happy with the person in the mirror once again.