What happens if I don’t have enough bone?
Bone can be added easily and predictably in area’s that are deficient in bone. Many people are initially worried about this, but they often find that it’s a straightforward procedure that is painfree.
There are many ways to add bone including:
Small local deficiencies are treated with adding bone taken from a vile and directly placing it around the implant site. the added bone is in a granulated consistency and all it does is provides a structure for new bone to form around it. the added bone is gradually replaced by your own bone. the sources of bone include human Donor bone, bovine bone or artifical bone. your implantologist will discuss which bone he will use and why. If you prefer, we can avoid using certain types of bone.
This is the simplest, quickest, most routine way of adding bone to the implant site.
Bone is sometimes added to the side of the implant if your bone is not sufficient width
Sinus Lift
The structure of Sinus
Your sinus is an air-space in your head. It lies directly above your molar teeth.
Bone loss
As you get older the sinus space normally gets larger. This effect is particularily increased when you loose your molar teeth meaning that the height of bone gets smaller and smaller.
The aim of a sinus lift is to increase the height of bone so that an implant can be placed. This is done by placing the implant, and pushing the sinus up slightly as shown in the diagraphs below.
Types of Bone
- Harvested bone from you
This can be scraped from the bone near the implant site in a process which is very simple and quick.
Bone can be taken from the back of the jaw, chin and hip, though this is rarely done for bone augmentation at our practice .
- Human Donor Bone
This is bone that has been donated after a person has died. It gets irradiated and stripped of all organic content, so it’s very safe. It ends up being a granulated structure that can be placed around deficient areas with ease.
- Bovine Bone
This is bone taken from cattle. Again, it is completely irradiated and stripped of organic content, so it is safe.
- Synthetic Bone
This is artificial bone.
Each type of bone has it’s pros and cons—please feel free to discuss your options with our implantologist if you have any preferences for your bone augmentation procedure.
